Japan's radiation now showing up across the U.S.

U.S. agencies continue to say "no harm to human health" even as Japanese radioactive releases from the Fukushima reactors literally rain down on some U.S. states. However, it is important to bear in mind that (a) there is no safe dose of radiation - this is supported by the National Academy of Sciences (b) Any additional and unnecessary exposures to radiation are potentially harmful and (c) the so-called "safe dose" calculation is based on the amount of radiation a healthy, white male in his 20s and 30s could tolerate. The same dose inflicted on a child, a pregnant woman or a fetus is far more harmful.

Radiation levels now declared 100,000 x "normal" at Fukushima

Official statements - which must be treated with some skepticism - now declare aerial radiation levels at Fukushima as 100,000 times "normal" with readings of 1,000 millisieverts an hour. A dose of 100 millisieverts a year is considered the threshold above which there is a risk of cancer. Again, the are calculations, not measurements and dose rates are generally not based on the most vulnerable such as pregnant women, unborn fetus and small children.

Radioactive water in Unit 2 reactor soars to 10 million times regular level

Air is also measuring 4 times more radioactive than under normal operating circumstances. The radioactive water is believed to be from the core of Unit 2 Fukushima Daiichi reactor. Seawater is highly contaminated. At least 17 workers have been acknowledged to have suffered severe radiation exposure. The situation continues to worsen at this slow, deadly disaster with no end in sight.

Update on March 27, 2011 by admin

TEPCO officials claim the 10 million reading was "an error." Credible? Likely not. Is TEPCO interested in saving lives or saving face?

World Health Organization vigil continues

The World Health Organization cannot make any comment or decision regarding nuclear energy without deferring to the International Atomic Energy Agency which actively promotes nuclear power. On Friday, Dr. Alexey Yablokov, a Russian expert on Chernobyl, referred to this conflict in pointing out why his book - which found likely one million deaths as a result of the Chernobyl accident - has been met with silence by agencies like the WHO. A daily vigil outside WHO headquarters in Geneva continues. Dr. Yablokov's co-author, the late Vassili Nesterenko (far left), along with Yablokov (left) and many others have actively participated in the vigil. As Oliver Tickell wrote in The Guardian: the 1959 agreement gave "the IAEA an effective veto on any actions by the WHO that relate in any way to nuclear power – and so prevent the WHO from playing its proper role in investigating and warning of the dangers of nuclear radiation on human health." The WHO vigil is now entering its 204th consecutive week.

The Nuclear Myth Melts Down: How the "Peaceful Atom" Became a Serial Killer

Chip Ward, a close colleague of Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps in the fight against the Private Fuel Storage, LLC "parking lot dump" for high-level radioactive waste targeted at the Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah, has declared that nuclear power has lost its alibi in the wake of Japan's nuclear power catastrophe. His essay was published at CommonDreams. Ward's books, Canaries on the Rim and Hope's Horizon, each contain chapters about the struggles against radioactive waste dumps targeted at or operating in Utah.