whats up: August 2011

Friday, August 26, 2011

"DON'T DIG HERE" | Musicians United for Safe Energy | Nukes, Earthquakes & Hurricanes

MUSE VIDEOS

DON'T DIG HERE

Written by: James Raymond
Performed by: David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Raymond, Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar, Dean Parks and Jeff Pevar
Produced by: Russ and Nathanial Kunkel

KOAN

The MUSE concert began with solemn acknowledgement of the recent Fukushima disaster. This video connected the nature of a Koan's teaching enlightenment to the need to raise energy consciousness as an introduction to the stage performance by Kitaro.

Video Created by Andrew Thomas

FACE THE FIRE

There are many ways that you can donate to help the efforts of MUSE. Here, Rosemary Butler offers her latest recording for download with all proceeds going directly to the clean and safe energy movement.

Video Created by Andrew Thomas

DINOSAURS

How long is nuclear waste a lethal danger? Consider this...
Video Created by Andrew Thomas

more MUSE VIDEOS

Musicians United for Safe Energy

Harvey Wasserman at MUSE Concert
- YouTube

On August 7th, thousands gathered at Shoreline Amphitheater for a day of music, inspiration, education and activism. Between the seven hours of stage performances, the audience saw a collection of videos about the issues, and ways to become engaged in the cause. For everyone who couldn't be there, we're happy to present these videos online.

NEWS
CSN, BONNIE RAITT, JACKSON BROWNE ROCK AGAINST NUKES

August 19, 2011 - by Barry Walters, Rolling Stone Magazine

Tom Morello, Jason Mraz join all-star benefit in wake of Japan disaster

"I'm so happy to be here, my dimples are locked," a beaming Bonnie Raitt said during her set at the August 7th all-star concert benefiting MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy), the activist group Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash and John Hall created in 1979 to promote alternatives to nuclear power..."

NukeFree.org

In August 2007, musicians Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash, along with longtime energy activists and colleagues, Harvey Wasserman and Tom Campbell, helped organize NukeFree.org as an on-going grassroots campaign and website working to defeat up to $50 billion in proposed loan guarantees for building new atomic reactors. Had these guarantees gone through, there would be virtually no chance of stopping the construction of dozens of new atomic reactors all over the United States.

Garnering support of scores of other artists/musicians and aligning with scientists and environmental groups, in just one month NukeFree.org was able to gather over 120,000 signatures on a petition presented to Congress. In a stunning victory shared with grassroots non-profit safe energy organizations, the proposed loan guarantees were pulled from the 2007 Energy Bill.

But the fight isn't over. Today the nuclear power industry is desperately trying to build new reactors in the United States, and to prolong the operation of the 104 currently licensed to operate here. And since the nuclear industry can't get private financing, they continue to go after state and federal funding for new plants. It is our commitment to stop that from happening. Going forward, NukeFree.org is committed to preventing the construction of new nuclear reactors and helping to pave the way for an energy economy based on renewables, efficiency and conservation. Toward that goal:

∑ The NukeFree.org website serves as an information hub providing up-to-the minute news on the most important nuclear power industry battles taking place across the country. We work closely with other groups monitoring energy issues and will let you know where key battles are shaping up and how you can help stop further funding for the nuclear power industry. It is also a resource providing background and references to learn more about nukes and alternative energy technologies.

∑ NukeFree.org works with the environmental / scientific communities to keep musicians, artists and others educated about nuclear and safe energy issues, as well as advising people how they can best impact energy legislation - using their voices and resources to support positive new green proposals and fight against boondoggles like the nuke loan guarantees.

Together we can make a difference!

The answer to global warming and so many of our economic problems is with renewables, energy efficiency and conservation. Help us again move beyond the fifty-year failure of atomic energy into a bright, prosperous green-powered future.

No Nukes!

Your contacts for NukeFree.org are:

Harvey Wasserman, Senior Advisor and Website Editor: windhw@mac.com

Mary Skerrett, Program Director and Outreach Coordinator: mary@nukefree.org

BREAKING NUKE NEWS @ NukeFree.org
8/26/11

• Bloomberg: East Coast Reactors Brace for Hurricane

Nuclear Reactors on East Coast Brace for Hurricane Irene's Wrath: Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- More than a dozen nuclear reactors along the U.S. East Coast are being prepared for potential loss of power and damage from high winds and storm surges as Hurricane Irene bears down on the region.

Nuclear plants in Irene's path continued to operate as workers secured loose equipment, checked diesel fuel supplies for backup generators and stowed cots and food for workers who may be stranded during the storm.

At Dominion Resources Inc.'s Millstone nuclear station, which sits on a narrow peninsula in the Long Island Sound near Waterford, Connecticut, workers were examining flood barriers and submarine doors designed to keep reactors dry from a hurricane's storm surge.

"That's part of our storm preparations: ensuring those flood barriers are in place, ready to do their job," said Ken Holt, a spokesman for Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion, in an interview yesterday... more

• Huffpo: East Coast Quake Forces Nuke Review

Bill Chameides: All Shook Up on the East Coast: What does the quake mean for nukes?

Nuclear Safety in the Wake of Recent Quakes

Given the disaster that befell Japan's Fukushima nuclear plants following the earthquake-induced tsunami last March, questions of how our East Coast nuclear power plants withstood Tuesday's shakes naturally arise...

In hindsight this week's event was kinda kewl. East Coasters from Maine to Georgia and beyond felt the earth shake beneath their feet for a few moments just before 2 p.m.

With a magnitude of 5.8 and a depth of 3.7 miles, the quake, which hit near the heretofore little known Mineral, Virginia, about 38 miles from Richmond, was the most powerful in the eastern United States in about 70 years. The last of a similar size hit New York state in 1944... more

• Earthquakes and Nuke Expansion

Earthquakes and the Expansion of Nuclear Power Plants

The August 23, 2011 (5.9 magnitude) earthquake on the east coast prompted no less than 10 nuclear plants in four states to declare “unusual events,” according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) . (The NRC defines an “unusual event” as a term used to denote that “something out of the ordinary” has happened.) The NRC reported that after the quake, the North Anna and Surry plants in Virginia; the Hope Creek, Oyster Creek and Salem plants in New Jersey; the Susquehanna, Three Mile Island, Peach Bottom and Limerick plants in Pennsylvania; and the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Maryland all declared such “unusual events.”

The east coast temblor and the nuclear “events” that followed should remind us that, despite hopes that Fukushima would spell the end of nuclear power, the so-called “nuclear renaissance” is alive and well.

In the aftermath of the March 11 triple-reactor meltdown at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, stories and opinion polls trumpeting Japan’s “growing anti-nuclear sentiment” flourished in both the corporate-owned and alternative media. When Germany’s Angela Merkel announced that her country would reject nuclear power and begin shuttering its old plants, the headline spanned newspapers across the globe.

Less widely reported is that, even as Germany, Japan and a handful of other countries -- among them, Italy, Switzerland and some ASEAN member states -- are rejecting or at least reconsidering their commitments to nuclear power, many more (including the US) are still on the nuclear fast track.

Russia, India, Brazil, some Middle Eastern oil economies and a host of developing countries number among those still hot to go nuclear. And the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported recently that more than 60 new countries have expressed “strong interest” in nuclear power -- among them, Iran, which is very close to commissioning its first reactor. The IAEA further promised that global use of nuclear energy will continue to increase for decades -- despite the ongoing crisis at Fukushima... more

• plus:

more BREAKING NUKE NEWS @ NukeFree.org -
TVA Wants to Sell Old Reactor to Finish Older One
The Hill: Quake Shakes Nuke Debate
New Scientist: Security Fears Rise over Laser Enrichment
Japan Triples Monitoring for Spreading Fallout...

NEWS August, 2011

EAST COAST EARTHQUAKE

The Associated Press: Quake prompts review of nuclear plants in 6 states: WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials say nuclear plants from North Carolina to Michigan are under increased scrutiny after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the East Coast.

Quake raises safety concerns as nuclear plant shut
| Reuters: (Reuters) - The largest earthquake to hit the East Coast of the United States in 67 years raised concerns on Tuesday about the safety of the country's nuclear power plants.

East Coast earthquake's epicenter near a nuclear plant - latimes.com: magnitude 5.8 earthquake that shook the East Coast on Tuesday was centered near a nuclear power plant, raising concerns that the facility could have been damaged.

North Anna Power Station, located about 10 miles from the epicenter, is running its safety systems on backup generators after the quake knocked out the plant’s outside power source.

David McIntyre, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the two reactors at the plant stopped generating power automatically after the quake.

Dominion's North Anna Nuclear Plant Loses Power After Quake: Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Dominion Resources Inc.'s North Anna nuclear power plant was operating on backup diesel generators after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake knocked out its offsite power.

North Anna's twin nuclear reactors automatically shut down during the earthquake, whose epicenter was less than 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the plant, about 85 miles southwest of Washington, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

One of the plant's four diesel generators, which are powering the reactors' cooling systems during the blackout, stopped working as a result of a coolant leak, Roger Hanah, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in an interview. Dominion Resources Inc. called a fifth standby generator into service to replace the broken unit, Ryan Frazier, a spokesman for Richmond-based Dominion, said in an e-mail.

HURRICANE IRENE

U.S. Nuclear Reactors Weather Storm - Bloomberg
By Julie Johnsson - Aug 28, 2011 3:23 PM PT

More than a dozen nuclear plants in the path of Hurricane Irene along the U.S. East Coast safely weathered the storm’s passage without losing power to their reactors, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Two reactors were taken offline because of the storm; one in New Jersey as a precaution and one in Maryland after damage from storm-blown debris triggered an automatic shutdown.

Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG)’s Calvert Cliffs plant, near Lusby, Maryland, was the only station to suffer damage from Irene, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in an e- mailed statement. Constellation declared an “unusual event, the lowest of four emergency classifications, after Irene’s winds sent a piece of aluminum siding crashing into the main transformer at the site...

Risk to nuclear plants in hurricane's path may not be what you think | iWatch News

...If the power goes out along the Eastern seaboard for a long period of time, there is a risk that nuclear plants’ backup generators could run out of fuel. Or, Riccio added, the backup power could fail like one of them did Tuesday after the earthquake knocked out electricity to the North Anna nuclear power plant in Virginia...

One Million Lose Power as Irene Takes Aim at New York - Bloomberg
Aug 28, 2011 12:02 AM PT

Exelon Corp. (EXC)’s Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey shut down its reactor as a precaution ahead of the storm, and other reactors reduced power.
Consolidated Edison said it will decide between 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. today whether to cut power to a swath of Lower Manhattan because of possible flooding from the torrential rains expected from the storm. Power may be cut from south of the Brooklyn Bridge, to Broadway, said John Miksad, the company’s senior vice president of electric operations.
Nuclear reactors near the coast in New Jersey and Connecticut began powering down as a precaution, said David McIntyre, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Reducing power will allow the plants to shut down faster and more efficiently if it becomes necessary.

Exelon shut down its Oyster Creek nuclear reactor in New Jersey as of 5 p.m. local time in anticipation of hurricane- force winds at the plant, the company said in a statement...

Hurricane Irene knocked a nuclear reactor offline at Calvert Cliffs
August 28, 2011 | Posted: 2:10 AM

Hurricane Irene sent a nuclear reactor offline late Saturday night. That's according to the Constellation Energy Nuclear Group.

Costellation says a heavy gust of wind knocked a large piece of aluminum siding from the building. The siding came in contact with a main transformer.

The company says all employees are safe, but an "Unusual Event" was declared. An Unusual Event is the lowest of the 4 emergency classifications.

Costellation says the facility is safe and there is no impact to neighbors...

Nuclear Reactors on East Coast Brace for Hurricane Irene's Wrath

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- More than a dozen nuclear reactors along the U.S. East Coast are being prepared for potential loss of power and damage from high winds and storm surges as Hurricane Irene bears down on the region...

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Democracy Now!
August 9, 2011

"As radiation readings in Japan reach their highest levels since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdowns (see previous post: Truth About Nuclear Power | Lethal Levels of Radiation), we look at the beginning of the atomic age. Today is the 66th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki, which killed some 75,000 people and left another 75,000 seriously wounded. It came just three days after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing around 80,000 people and injuring some 70,000. By official Japanese estimates, nearly 300,000 people died from the bombings, including those who lost their lives in the ensuing months and years from related injuries and illnesses. Other researchers estimate a much higher death toll. We play an account of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki by the pilots who flew the B-29 bomber that dropped that bomb, and feature an interview with the son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Weller, who was the first reporter to enter Nagasaki. He later summarized his experience with military censors who ordered his story killed, saying, 'They won.' Our guest is Greg Mitchell, co-author of 'Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial,' with Robert Jay Lifton. His latest book is 'Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki and The Greatest Movie Never Made.' [includes rush transcript]"

Radiation Poisoning 'Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki' - New Book

New Book: "Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki"

Footage of Hiroshima & Nagasaki Suppressed for Decades

Greg Mitchell: In my latest book, 'Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and The Greatest Movie Never Made,' I probe a turning point in U.S. history: the suppression of film footage, for decades, shot by a U.S. Army unit in the atomic cities -- a wrong turn with staggering consequences even today. This is a detective story, a profile of two remarkable military officers, and one of the last little-told stories of World War II (and its aftermath). The cover-up even extended to Hollywood. And there was no WikiLeaks to get the film aired.

As co-author of the classic 'Hiroshima in America' and eleven other books, I've written about elements of this story for leading newspapers and magazines, but now I tell the full saga here, based on new research -- from the Truman Library to Nagasaki...

My New Book 'Atomic Cover-up' Reveals Film Secrets

" America's "nuclear entrapment" continues to this day. Atomic Cover-up takes a wide angle look at the use of the bomb in 1945--and its impact right up to 2011. It might be sub-titled "From Hiroshima to Fukushima."

The Dark History of Nuclear Weapons and Energy Proliferation

Casualty from the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.

Casualty from the Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

ATOM DAYS is a sweeping saga that tells the entire story of the nuclear age. The project is intended to be produced as a a six-part documentary television mini-series and companion educational Website for main stream adult audiences. If you are Interested in participating in the development of this property please Contact Us.

Destruction of Nagasaki, Japan near ground zero.

Images credit: PR Web: New Website on the Dark History of Nuclear Weapons and Energy Proliferation Wins Silver Award in Prestigious 2009 W3 Awards Competition.

J. Robert Oppenheimer | Media Gallery | atomicarchive.com (click for video)

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that one way or another.
-J. Robert Oppenheimer

@Wikipedia

Atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 9, 1945

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945

For six months before the atomic bombings, the United States intensely fire-bombed 67 Japanese cities. Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. The Japanese government ignored this ultimatum. By executive order of President Harry S. Truman, the U.S. dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed by the detonation of "Fat Man" over Nagasaki on August 9.

Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefectural health department estimates that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In a US estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death, 15–20% died from radiation sickness, 20–30% from flash burns, and 50–60% from other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians.

Six days after the detonation over Nagasaki, on August 15, Japan announced its surrender to the Allied Powers, signing the Instrument of Surrender on September 2, officially ending the Pacific War and therefore World War II. Germany had signed its Instrument of Surrender on May 7, ending the war in Europe. The bombings led, in part, to post-war Japan's adopting Three Non-Nuclear Principles, forbidding the nation from nuclear armament.[9] The role of the bombings in Japan's surrender and the U.S.'s ethical justification for them, as well as their strategic importance, is still debated.

• Nuclear weapon

Only two nuclear weapons have been used in the course of warfare, both by the United States near the end of World War II. On 6 August 1945, a uranium gun-type device code-named "Little Boy" was detonated over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on 9 August, a plutonium implosion-type device code-named "Fat Man" was exploded over Nagasaki, Japan. These two bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 Japanese people—mostly civilians—from acute injuries sustained from the explosions.[3] The role of the bombings in Japan's surrender, and their ethical status, remain the subject of scholarly and popular debate.

• Effects of nuclear explosions

• Effects of nuclear explosions on human health

Tsar Bomba

Tsar Bomba (Russian: Царь-бомба) is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. Also known as Kuz`kina Mat` (Russian: Кузькина мать, Kuzka's mother).

"From Hiroshima to Fukushima: Japan's Atomic Tragedies." By Amy Goodman
August 10, 2011

In recent weeks, radiation levels have spiked at the Fukushima nuclear power reactors in Japan, with recorded levels of 10,000 millisieverts per hour (mSv/hr) at one spot. This is the number reported by the reactor’s discredited owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., although that number is simply as high as the Geiger counters go. In other words, the radiation levels are literally off the charts. Exposure to 10,000 millisieverts for even a brief time would be fatal, with death occurring within weeks. (For comparison, the total radiation from a dental X-ray is 0.005 mSv, and from a brain CT scan is less than 5 mSv.) The New York Times has reported that government officials in Japan suppressed official projections of where the nuclear fallout would most likely move with wind and weather after the disaster in order to avoid costly relocation of potentially hundreds of thousands of residents.

“Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.” While those words could describe how the Japanese government has handled the nuclear catastrophe, they were said by atomic scientist Edward Teller, one of the key creators of the first two atomic bombs. The uranium bomb dubbed “Little Boy” was dropped on Aug. 6, 1945, on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, the second, a plutonium bomb called “Fat Man,” was dropped over the city of Nagasaki, Japan. Close to a quarter-million people were killed by the massive blasts and the immediate aftereffects. No one knows the full extent of the death and disease that followed, from the painful burns that thousands of survivors suffered to the later effects of radiation sickness and cancer.

The history of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is itself the history of U.S. military censorship and propaganda. In addition to the suppressed film footage, the military kept the blast zones off-limits to reporters. When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist George Weller managed to get in to Nagasaki, his story was personally killed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett managed to sneak in to Hiroshima not long after the blast and reported what he called “a warning to the world,” describing widespread illnesses as an “atomic plague.” The military deployed one of its own. It turns out that William Laurence, The New York Times reporter, was also on the payroll of the War Department. He faithfully reported the U.S. government position, that “the Japanese described ‘symptoms’ that did not ring true.” Sadly, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his propaganda.

Greg Mitchell has been writing about the history and aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for decades. On this anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, I asked Mitchell about his latest book, “Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and The Greatest Movie Never Made.”

“Anything that nuclear weapons or nuclear energy touches leads to suppression and leads to danger for the public,” he told me. For years, Mitchell sought newsreel footage shot by the U.S. military in the months following the atomic blasts. Tracking down the aging filmmakers, and despite decades-old government classification, he was one of the journalists who publicized the incredible color film archives. As part of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, the film crews documented not only the devastation of the cities, but also close-up, clinical documentation of the severe burns and disfiguring injuries suffered by the civilians, including children.

In one scene, a young man is shown with red, raw wounds all over his back, undergoing treatment. Despite the massive burns and being treated months late, the man survived.

Now 82, Sumiteru Taniguchi is director of the Nagasaki Council of A-Bomb Sufferers. Mitchell found recent comments from Taniguchi in a Japanese newspaper linking the atomic bombing to the Fukushima disaster:

“Nuclear power and mankind cannot coexist. We survivors of the atomic bomb have said this all along. And yet, the use of nuclear power was camouflaged as ‘peaceful’ and continued to progress. You never know when there’s going to be a natural disaster. You can never say that there will never be a nuclear accident.”

In a poignant fusion of the old and new disasters, we should listen to the surviving victims of both.

© 2011 Amy Goodman

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 950 stations in North America. She is the author of “Breaking the Sound Barrier,” recently released in paperback and now a New York Times best-seller.

Democracy Now!: Democracy Now! reports on the disaster in Japan following a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Truth About Nuclear Power | Lethal Levels of Radiation

FUKUSHIMA UPDATE

Beyond Nuclear - Second extremely high radiation reading recorded at Fukushima Daiichi

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) recorded a second source of an extremely high radiation exposure amid the wreckage of its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant destroyed by the multiple unit hydrogen explosions and nuclear meltdowns as a result of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

On August 3, 2011, geiger counters used by TEPCO workers entering Unit 1 shot up to 5 seiverts per hour (500 REM/hr). This is considered a deadly dose of radiation forcing the workers to retreat from the area. On August 1, 2011 workers first encountered a radiation field that sent instrument readings offscale at more than 10 seiverts per hour.

Update on August 4, 2011 - Arnie Gundersen at Fairewinds Associates has posted a video explaining his theories about the origins of the lethally high radioactivity dose rates now being detected at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It is entitled 'Lethal Levels of Radiation at Fukushima: What Are the Implications?' - see below -

Beyond Nuclear
• Unsafe at Any Dose by Helen Caldicott | Helen Caldicott, MD
• The Nuclear Retreat | The Renewable Energy Renaissance

Lethal Levels of Radiation at Fukushima: What Are the Implications?

TEPCO has discovered locations on the Fukushima plant site with lethal levels of external gamma radiation. Fairewinds takes a close look at how this radiation might have been deposited and how similar radioactive material would have been released offsite.

• Lethal Levels of Radiation at Fukushima: What Are the Implications?
• Fairewinds updates on Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
• Fairewinds videos

Aug 3, 2011
Tepco Reports Second Deadly Radiation Reading at Fukushima Nuclear Plant - Bloomberg

A handout photograph shows a gamma camera image of an area around the main exhaust stack of Unit 1 and 2 at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (Tepco) Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2011. On Aug. 1 in another area it recorded radiation of 10 sieverts per hour, enough to kill a person “within a few weeks” after a single exposure, according to the World Nuclear Association. Tokyo Electric Power Co. via Bloomberg

Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported its second deadly radiation reading in as many days at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo.
The utility known as Tepco said yesterday it detected 5 sieverts of radiation per hour in the No. 1 reactor building. On Aug. 1 in another area it recorded radiation of 10 sieverts per hour, enough to kill a person “within a few weeks” after a single exposure, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Radiation has impeded attempts to replace cooling systems to bring three melted reactors and four damaged spent fuel ponds under control after a tsunami on March 11 crippled the plant. The latest reading was taken on the second floor of the No. 1 reactor building and will stop workers entering the area.

“It’s probably the first of many more to come,” said Michael Friedlander, who spent 13 years operating nuclear power plants in the U.S., including the Crystal River Station in Florida. “Although I am not surprised, it concerns me greatly; the issue is the worker safety.”
The 10 sieverts of radiation detected on Aug. 1 outside reactor buildings was the highest the Geiger counters used were capable of reading, indicating the level could have been higher, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said at a press conference...

August 2 2011
Fukushima Radiation So High, Geiger Counter Can't Register It!

Gaia Health: Fukushima radiation is six times more than the previous high, more than Geiger counters can register. News media and governments cover it up—and radioactive waste to be used as garden soil! - by Heidi Stevenson;

Radiation levels at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant suddenly rose to more than six times the highest levels they'd ever reached before now. And, of course, there isn't a hint of it in the mainstream media.

TEPCO, the company that owns the plant, reports today that radiation levels over 10,000 millisieverts per hour have been registered on the second floor of reactor one. How much more, we don't know. Geiger counters can't measure more than 10,000 millisieverts an hour! They say that they have restricted access to the room. But what is likely to happen to the workers who were there? The maximum allowed for reactor employees is now 250 millisieverts—an amount that was increased from 100 millisieverts for no medical reason.

August 1, 2011
Nuclear Crisis in Japan

NIRS: Tepco reported today the highest radiation levels yet measured at Fukushima Daiichi—1,000 Rems/hour (10 Sieverts/hour)—a lethal dose. The measurements were taken at the base of the ventilation stack for Units 1 and 2 (the stack that did not work during the accident). The actual levels may have been more than measured, since the monitoring equipment could not measure more than 10 Sieverts/hour. Workers sent to the area to confirm the measurements, which were first picked up by a gamma measuring camera, received doses of about 400 millirems in just a few minutes.

All of this brings up a lot of questions Tepco and the Japanese government must be held to account for. It has been more than four months since the accident began. The belief is that these readings are a result of the failed attempt at ventilation in the early hours of the accident. How is it possible that Tepco is noticing this extraordinarily high reading only now? How many workers have walked by this area in the past four and a half months without realizing the kind of dose they were getting? What does this say about Tepco’s, and the government’s, overall radiation measurements both onsite and offsite? ...

Friday, June 17, 2011. There have been increasing reports of radioactive “hotspots” being found around Japan, especially in the area outside but near the evacuation zone of course, but also quite far away. For example, the Wall Street Journal reported today on a hotspot found in Chiba Prefecture 120 miles from Fukushima Daiichi and not too far from Tokyo. There have been reports of elevated readings in Tokyo itself, and across northern Japan.

We found the map ~~below~~ today on DailyKos which gives some indication of the extent of contamination. The areas in blue indicate slightly elevated radiation levels—high enough that a person exposed to these levels likely would receive an annual radiation dose in excess of 1 MilliSievert/year (100 millirems/year), which, until Fukushima was the maximum annual exposure level for the general public in Japan—as it remains the maximum level in the U.S.

As the colors move more toward red, the levels go higher. As has been well-understood, the areas to the northwest of Fukushima Daiichi have been hardest hit—but not all those areas in red and orange have yet been evacuated—and they should be. Indeed a good argument could be made that the areas in any color other than blue should be evacuated. Of course, no one will ever return to those areas that have been evacuated...

Areas not marked with a color are not necessarily uncontaminated—they may have just not been measured yet.
And that brings us to two points about radioactive “hotspots.” First, while the ongoing daily radiation releases from Fukushima certainly aren’t helping things, we believe that most of the hotspots are being discovered now simply because they are finally being measured now. The high levels of radiation most likely were generated during the first week of the accident. In other words, people have been living with these hotspots for the past three months—and are only in recent days learning about them. And we believe many more hotspots will be discovered as measuring continues and expands. This means that the exposures to the general unevacuated population—especially internal exposures—are most likely higher than has been presumed.

The second point is, as is obvious from the map, radiation does not deposit uniformly. Indeed, there can be, and likely are, hotspots even in those areas showing relatively low contamination levels. It is not uncommon to take a radiation measurement in one location, and find a much higher hotspot just yards, and even feet, away. That is usually due to the presence of a highly radioactive particle, and short of measuring every square foot of land, it is impossible to fully measure all of the hotspots.

That’s why governments must err on the side of caution, and where general radiation levels indicate that allowable limits may be exceeded, it should be presumed that those limits will be exceeded and appropriate measures—including relocation—should be implemented. That’s why villages dozens and even hundreds of miles from Chernobyl, well outside the Dead Zone, no longer exist.

Instead, Japan has chosen the opposite course. Instead of taking steps to prevent unnecessary exposures, it increased the allowable limit from 1 MilliSievert/year to 20 MilliSieverts/year (2 rems/year)—an “allowable” level more commonly associated with German nuclear workers (U.S. nuclear workers are allowed to receive 5 rems/year). Even so, many people in northern Japan are likely to receive doses above 20 MilliSieverts/year because of the government’s fear and failure to take necessary protective steps. And that is likely to turn out to be the real tragedy of Fukushima...

Nuclear Crisis in Japan
Nuclear Information and Resource Center (NIRS)

The Truth About Nuclear Power: Japanese Nuclear Engineer Calls for Abolition　　核の真実−−日本の核技術者、廃絶を訴える :: JapanFocus

The seven sins of nuclear power

"(In closing,) - I would like to quote the “seven social sins” that Mahatma Gandhi warned against, and which are inscribed on his tombstone. The first is “Politics without Principle.” To those who gathered here today, I would like you to take these words deeply to heart. Gandhi’s other sins, such as “Wealth without Work,” “Pleasure without Conscience,” “Knowledge without Character,” “Commerce without Morality,” all apply to electric power companies, including TEPCO. And with “Science without Humanity,” I would challenge academia and its all-out involvement with the nation’s nuclear power policy, and that includes myself. The last one is “Worship without Sacrifice.” To those who have faith, please take these words to heart, too. Thank you very much."

Koide Hiroaki began his career as a nuclear engineer forty years ago drawn to the promise of nuclear power. Quickly, however, he recognized the flaws in Japan’s nuclear power program and emerged as among the best informed of Japan’s nuclear power critic. His cogent public critique of the nuclear village earned him an honourable form of purgatory as a permanent assistant professor at Kyoto University. Koide would pay a price in career terms, continuing his painstaking research on radio nuclide measurement at Kyoto University’s Research Reactor Institute (KURRI) in the shadows. Until 3.11.

Since the earthquake tsunami and nuclear meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi, he has emerged as a powerful voice and a central figure in charting Japan’s future energy course in the wake of disaster: in scores of well attended public lectures, in daily media consultations and interviews, in his widely read posts and in three books that have helped to redefine public consciousness and official debate...

Nuclear Power 101: Fairewinds examines the fundamental advantages and disadvantages of splitting atoms to boil water

Included in this presentation and PowerPoint is a discussion of how nuclear power plants work, how to cool a reactor during an accident, the effect of hot particles when inhaled, and concerns involving the long-term storage of nuclear waste. This presentation took place at the Nuclear Power Conference held at the University of Vermont July 23, 2011.

• Nuclear Power 101: Fairewinds examines the fundamental advantages and disadvantages of splitting atoms to boil water
• Fairewinds updates on Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
• Fairewinds videos

All Things Nuclear • UCS’s Take on NRC’s Post-Fukushima Recommendations

Today (AUGUST 1, 2011) we released our critique of key recommendations by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) near-term task force in response to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident earlier this year.

Three of the five NRC commissioners have now voted to not put its own task force recommendations on the fast track, arguing that the NRC needs more information to proceed.

However, if the NRC balks at implementing new safeguards in a reasonable time frame on the grounds that it doesn’t have enough information about what happened in Japan, then the agency also doesn’t have enough information to relicense operating reactors or license new ones. If the NRC commissioners need more time to sort out the lessons of Fukushima, there should be a moratorium on relicensing old reactors and licensing new ones until they do.

All Things Nuclear
A project of the Union of Concerned Scientists

See also
• LINKS PAGE
• VIDEOS PAGE
• recent Fukushima & related updates for nuclear news, background info, links and actions -

Diablo Canyon | Need To Know | It Can Happen Here
You can't see it, and you can't smell it either | Nuclear Nightmare Unfolding
Three Nuclear Meltdowns, Radiation Leaked into Sea; U.S. Waste Poses Deadly Risks
Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe Update | Related News
Nuclear Safety is an Oxymoron | How will broken-melting-fuming-leaking Fukushima Daiichi weather Monster Typhoon?
What's going on at Japan's damaged nuclear power plant?
End the nuclear loan program now | Quaint Vermont fixer-upper
Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown Confirmed
abolish atomic - new art | news from Beyond Nuclear | TAKE ACTION
Learning from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster? | Unsafe at Any Dose
We do not want atom!
Fallout? | Delay Licensing! | Evacutation? | Taxes?
NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW - Flyer
Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 | Downwinders | Nuclear Law
25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster | NUCLEAR "SAFTEY" = NUCLEAR THREAT
Anti-nuclear movement | California Nukes
Arnie Gundersen on Current Fukushima Daiichi Situation
Deepak Chopra homebase: Fukushima ~ Indian Point, NY
Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth
Fukushima a "Ticking Time Bomb"
Nuclear Catastrophe in Japan “Not Equal to Chernobyl, But Way Worse”
Nuclear Power = Crime Against Humanity
Obama: No Money for Nukes!
Pacifica Nuclear Teach-in | The Code Killers by Ace Hoffman
Nuclear Obama, Radioactive Boars & Frogs of Fukushima
fukushima plutonium
Fukushima still fuming - nuclear catastrophe update
MARCH ARCHIVE

CHECK FOR NEWS
• google news ~ "Fukushima + nuclear"
• news feeds below

-!- fukushima nuclear power plant japan nuclear crisis nuclear disaster radiation catastrophe radioactive fallout nuclear energy safety hazard environment ecology pollution -!-

NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW

whats up

Friday, August 26, 2011

"DON'T DIG HERE" | Musicians United for Safe Energy | Nukes, Earthquakes & Hurricanes

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Truth About Nuclear Power | Lethal Levels of Radiation

Pages

Translate

Search This Blog

Blog Archive

Labels

video

newsfeeds

GreenWorld

All Things Nuclear

Beyond Nuclear

News

International Atomic Energy Agency Updates on Fukushima Nuclear Disaster

Ace Hoffman's Nuclear Failures Reports

GreenWorld | NIRS

Beyond Nuclear

All Things Nuclear

Ace Hoffman's blog -- mostly about nukes

IAEA Top News RSS Feed

IAEA Media Advisories RSS Feed

whats up - recent posts to this blog