Thom Hartmann interviews Beyond Nuclear on Fukushima Daiichi's 600 metric tons of missing corium

On June 9, 2016, Thom Hartmann, host of "The Big Picture" on RT, interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, regarding a Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) spokesman's admission that the 200 metric tons in each of three melted atomic reactors (for a total of 600 metric tons) is simply still missing, more than five years into the ongoing nuclear catastrophe.

Kevin talks about the risks associated with 22 identically designed General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors still operating in the U.S., as well as the 8 additional Mark IIs of very similar design.

Kevin also shares the revelation from a recent U.S. National Academies of Sciences report, that a high-level radioactive waste storage pool fire at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 was very narrowly averted in March-April 2011, by sheer luck. A gate between the pool, and the adjacent water-filled reactor cavity, failed for some still unexplained reason. The flood of water prevented the pool from boiling or evaporating dry to the tops of the irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies, which then would have quickly reached ignition temperature, releasing up to ten times the radioactive Cesium-137 that got out during the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.

Listen to the full interview, from the 44:30 minute mark to the 49:30 minute mark of the program.

Experts present startling findings around Fukushima and Chernobyl at commemorative event

Beyond Nuclear held a stimulating afternoon and evening of presentations, panel discussions and short films to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the 5th anniversary of the still on-going Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.  The event took place on May 3rd at the Goethe-Institut in Washington DC and was also supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation North America.  Beyond Nuclear is also very grateful to our member cosponsors: James Cromwell, Alice and Lincoln Day, Dr. Ian Fairlie, Judi and Lou Friedman, Jay Hormel, Redwood Alliance, and Carolyn and Roy Treadway. Learn more.

Hibakuaha's International Signature Campaign Launched. Please Support It

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Friends,

                Yesterday Peace & Planet Japanese member organizations Nihon Hidankyo, Gensuikyo and Peace Boat launched an international petition campaign urging support for the Hibakuksha’s call for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons.

                Please find the announcement and a link to the petition below. Better yet, please print out the petition, sign and circulate it.

                For a nuclear weapons-free, peaceful, just and sustainable world,

                Joseph [Gerson, Peace & Planet]

 

Petition: Support the Hibakusha’s (A-bomb Survivors) Appeal Today

 

A starting joint action of the international signature campaign in support of the Appeal of the Hibakusha (A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima & Nagasaki) for the elimination of nuclear weapons was carried out at downtown Shibuya, Tokyo on April 27, 2016.

With a banner reading “Hibakusha Earnestly Desire Elimination of Nuclear Weapons” hanging high, Terumi Tanaka, secretary general of Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo), called on passers-by to support the petition for the abolition of nuclear weapons.  He said, “I want hundreds of millions of people in the world to support the petition”.  Many Hibakusha took part in the action from Tokyo and nearby prefectures, and insisted that nuclear weapons must never be used again, speaking of their A-bomb experiences. Many peace organizations and individuals, which support the Appeal of the Hibakusha, also joined the street action and called for the start of negotiations on a treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.  They include Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo), Japan Peace Committee, Peace Boat, Religions for Peace Japan, etc.

The Hibakusha and participants were so much encouraged to get support for the petition from young people, high school students, housewives and tourists from USA, UK, France and China.  A total of 277 signatures were collected in the 45-minute action.

Linked here, please find the Appeal of the Hibakusha and petition form. 

The Appeal of the Hibakusha was announced in April, 2016 in Tokyo, and this signature campaign was proposed and initiated by the Hibakusha and Nihon Hidankyo.  Japanese peace organizations and individuals are determined to jointly support and develop this campaign in Japan and the rest of the world.

Please send us your support message to the petition and spread this signature campaign in your country.

Sincerely,

Yayoi Tsuchida

Gensuikyo Assistant general secretary

Bradford in BAS: When the unthinkable is deemed impossible: Reflecting on Fukushima

Peter A. Bradford, adjunct professor, Vermont Law School, and former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner, Maine Public Utility Commission Chairman, and former New York State Public Utility Commission Chair, as well as Union of Concerned Scientists board member, has written a column in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) that begins:

Nuclear power requires obedience, as well as massive subsidy and the suppression of competition from other forms of low-carbon energy. These are not attractive platform planks in market-oriented democracies, so subterfuge in the service of political clout is also needed.

Abhorrent prerequisites need not lead to political defeat these days. Raise enough money. Scare enough people. Demonize and hamstring enough alternatives. Hornswoggle enough regulators. Procure celebrity endorsements. Rhapsodize new designs transcending today’s shortcomings. Just don’t make fools of your backers, or befoul their living rooms.

That is where Fukushima fits in. A few times in the six-decade history of nuclear power, some event once deemed impossible has taken place—shifting the ground under politicians and investors and forcing the abandonment of plants well along or already built. [More.]

FIVE YEARS AFTER: Fukushima towns co-hosting nuclear plant frozen in time

As reported by Asahi Shimbun, the host towns -- Okuma and Futaba -- of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant -- now radioactive ruins -- are ghost towns, five years after the catastrophe began. A clock in an abandoned convenience store stopped the moment the 9.0 earthquake struck on 3/11/11, not unlike the clocks and wrist watches that stopped when the atomic bomb struck Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Ordinary lives suspended -- such as laundry hanging on the line, is very similar to the ghostly, iconic images from the Chernobyl Dead Zone. Both homes and businesses are just like they were left (only, suffering the effects of the elements) by their former occupants, who had to flee immediately to escape the spreading, hazardous radioactivity.