Japanese federal government raises Fukushima accident rating to highest level, acknowledging a "major accident"

Reuters reports that the Japanese federal government has officially raised the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe from a 5 to a 7 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), making it comparable to the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. However, the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe is not under control and is still unfolding. In addition, whereas Chernobyl involved a single reactor that exploded and burned, Fukushima involves three reactors in various stages of meltdown, two with damaged primary containments, and one high-level radioactive waste pool that has already caught fire and released large amounts of hazardous radioactivity directly into the environment -- with the potential for a number of other high-level radioactive waste pools to do the same. In addition, Fukushima is located in a much more densely populated area than Chernobyl. The Washington Post similarly reports on the Level 7 on the INES, including the warning that more than one country may be effected by Fukushima Daiichi's large-scale, hazardous radioactivity releases.

The Return of Nukespeak

Rory O'Connor and Richard Bell, authors of the 1983 book Nukespeak, wrote an op-ed on March 16, in the wake of the unfolding Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, entitled "The Return of Nukespeak."

How nuclear apologists mislead the world over radiation

Dr. Helen Caldicott, founding president of Beyond Nuclear, takes nuclear denier George Monbiot and others to task for exposing their lack of knowledge while assuming a great deal in misleadingly minimizing the risks of internal radiation. Read the Guardian column, which clearly explains the difference between external and internal emitters and the lasting and damaging effects of the latter. Dr. Caldicott points out: "The grave effects of internal emitters are of the most profound concern at Fukushima. It is inaccurate and misleading to use the term "acceptable levels of external radiation" in assessing internal radiation exposures. To do so, as Monbiot has done, is to propagate inaccuracies and to mislead the public worldwide (not to mention other journalists) who are seeking the truth about radiation's hazards."

In Japan 17,500 rally against nuke plants

"About 17,500 people held two rallies Sunday against nuclear power plants, reflecting public rage over the crisis unfolding at the Fukushima No. 1 power station some 220 km northeast of Tokyo...'It's epoch-making that so many people gathered without being mobilized by a large organization' said one of the organizers. Japan Times

"New Doubts About Turning Plutonium Into a Fuel"

The New York Times reports that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe has contributed -- along with concerns about the nuclear weapons proliferation risks -- to new doubts about using plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, or Mox, as commercial atomic reactor fuel. Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Number 3 contained a core fueled by 6% Mox, which Dr. Ed Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists has said could result in even worse health impacts downwind and downstream than uranium fuel, if the Mox fuel escapes from its containment onto the winds and waters.