A digest of news provided with the help of Atlantis Green Letters and No Nukes News
Revealed: British government’s plan to play down Fukushima
Internal emails seen by Guardian show PR campaign was launched to protect UK nuclear plans after tsunami in Japan
British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known. Internal emails seen by the Guardian show how the business and energy departments worked closely behind the scenes with the multinational companies EDF Energy, Areva and Westinghouse to try to ensure the accident did not derail their plans for a new generation of nuclear stations in the UK. “This has the potential to set the nuclear industry back globally,” wrote one official at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), whose name has been redacted.
[In the US, the Casey Anthony murder trial accomplished the same goal: A virtual media blackout on the 3 nuclear melt-downs at Fukushima, save for www.legitgov.org and a few others.]
See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/30/british-government-plan-play-down-fukushima
Fukushima children test positive for internal radiation exposure
Traces of caesium-134 and 137 isotopes found in urine tests on 10 children in city near stricken nuclear power pant 30 Jun 2011 Trace amounts of radioactive substances have been found in urine samples taken from children from Fukushima city, raising concerns that residents have been exposed internally to radiation from the stricken nuclear power plant 37 miles (60km) away. Tests were conducted in May on 10 children, aged between 6 and 16, by a Japanese civic group and Acro, a French body that measures radioactivity. All 10 tested positive for tiny amounts of caesium-134 and caesium-137.
See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/30/fukushima-children-radiation-tests-caesium
Government urges 3 more prefectures to examine radiation levels in food 28 Jun 2011
A government task force on the nuclear emergency said Monday it has decided to call on three more prefectures to examine radioactive materials in food, while adding tea, wheat and fishery products as individual items to be monitored. A rule on radiation in food the panel set in early April has so far targeted four prefectures including Fukushima, where the government has banned shipments of farm products after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and the surrounding seven prefectures.
See http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110628p2g00m0dm007000c.html
5.4 magnitude quake hits central Japan
An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale has jolted central Japan, leaving at least seven people injured, the Japan Meteorological Agency and local media reported. The 5.4 earthquake hit the Nagano Prefecture and its vicinity in central Japan, some 170 kilometers (105 miles) northwest of Tokyo, on Thursday at 8:18 a.m. local time. The quake was soon followed by smaller aftershocks.
See http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186859.html
Los Alamos Fire: Perimeter of Nuclear Lab Set Ablaze
Firefighters working against the wildfire that surrounds the nuclear lab in Los Alamos, N.M., have set part of the perimeter of the lab ablaze in hopes of starving the wildfire of fuel in the event it heads back toward the stash of radioactive material stored inside the lab. After creating a blackened ring that now circles the lab, crews are betting that starting fires to stop them is a gamble that will pay off. To ensure the accuracy of the examination, the Environmental Protection Agency brought in dozens of air monitors all across the state, along with a special airplane that takes instant radiation samples.
See http://abcnews.go.com/US/los-alamos-fire-perimeter-nuclear-lab-set-ablaze/story?id=13964006
Internal Radioactive Emitters: invisible, tasteless and odorless
There is confusion and misunderstanding in the media, and amongst politicians and the general public, about what nuclear accidents, particularly the accident at Fukushima, will mean medically. It will be useful to explain how radiation induces disease and what sort of radioactive material is contained in a nuclear power plant.
See http://www.nuclearfreeplanet.org/articles/internal-radioactive-emitters-invisible-tasteless-and-odorless.html
Nuclear Power: When Morality Melts Down
By Paul McKay, author of Atomic Accomplice
Currently, the world inventory of plutonium being stored at civilian nuclear plants like Fukushima is about 2 million kilograms. A typical atomic weapon requires 10 kilograms of plutonium. See http://paulmckay.com/mckay%20nuclear%20essay.pdf
45 per cent of Fukushima children had thyroid exposure to radiation
http://www.thehindu.com/news/article2161471.ece
‘Scandalous collusion’: Gov’t, nuclear industry planned Fukushima cover-up
http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/scandalous-collusion-gov-t-nuclear-industry-planned-fukushima-cover-up?CID=examiner_alerts_article&fb_comment=34963581
Japan PM says country should aim to be nuclear-free
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Japan+should+nuclear+free/5094681/story.html
Social Fallout: Marginalization After the Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown
http://japanfocus.org/site/view/3562
Radioactive beef already sold, eaten: Fukushima meat sent to nine prefectures
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110712x1.html
Radioactive Sewage Sludge Accumulates in Tokyo
3 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhQepqpFQck&feature=player_embedded
Japan’s Kan says nuclear clean-up could take decades
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/09/us-japan-nuclear-hosono-idUSTRE7680Z520110709
Radiation found in Japan whales
http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Radiation-found-in-Japan-whales-20110614
Small Modular Reactors No Solution for the Cost, Safety, and Waste Problems of Nuclear Power
http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/newreactors/smractsheet.pdf
Thorium Reactors: Back to the Dream Factory
Thorium reactors do not eliminate problems. The bottom line is this. Thorium reactors still produce high-level radioactive waste, they still pose problems and opportunities for the proliferation of nuclear weapons, they still pose catastrophic accident scenarios as potential targets for terrorist or military attack, for example. See http://www.ccnr.org/Thorium_Reactors.html
Nuclear Power’s Other Tragedy: Communities Living With Uranium Mining
Modern-day uranium exploration and mining are far from being as safe as they claim to be.
See http://earthworksaction.org/pubs/Nuclear-Power-Other-Tragedy-low.pdf