"Fukushima is Worse than Chernobyl -- on Global Contamination"

In an interview with the Asia-Pacific Journal Japan Focus, Dr. Chris Busby of the European Committee on Radiation Risk challenges the International Commission on Radiological Protection's radiation dose methodologies, and predicts around 200,000 cancers will result over the next half century in populations within 200 km (124 miles) of the catastrophically leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Sign the petition to demand a referendum on nuclear in France

They did it in Italy; now it has to happen in France. A staggering 95% of Italians voting in their June referendum supported a permanent ban on nuclear power in Italy. Please sign the French petition to demand a similar referendum in France.

Areva of France takes advantage of Fukushima catastrophe

In an article entitled "French nuclear power lobbyists used Fukushima smear campaign to promote own business," the Mainichi Daily News reports that the French nuclear establishment was playing a double game in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. While French President Nicolas Sarkozy and even CEO of Areva Anne Lauvergeon were in Tokyo offering their full support to the Japanese prime minister and Japanese federal government, Areva lobbyists were busily handing out booklets to U.S. Congress Members portraying the catastrophe as peculiar to Japan, and impossible with Areva reactors. The Areva sales team was so forceful in its sales pitch that it even convinced Tokyo Electric Power Company to choose it to provide the water decontamination system at Fukushima Daiichi -- which has failed repeatedly in the past few weeks. The article also reports that Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric's Chairman and CEO as well as President Obama's job creation czar, dodged meetings with Japanese federal government officials and questions from reporters for fear of being held liable for the catastrophe involving four GE Boiling Water Reactors of the Mark 1 design.

U.S., Japanese, and Mongolian nuclear establishments conspire to dump high-level radioactive wastes in Mongolia

Reuters cites a Mainichi Daily report that such U.S.-Japanese nuclear industry corporate players as General Electric-Hitachi and Toshiba-Westinghouse, in cahoots with Japanese federal ministries and the Mongolian government's uranium mining and nuclear development arm, were close to finalizing a deal on turning Mongolia into an international dumpsite for irradiated nuclear fuel, until the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe derailed the schedule. Undeterred by that, the partners in crime (or, at least it should be a crime) are still pursuing the plan.

Did earthquake begin meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi even before tsunami struck?

The Atlantic Wire, in an article entitled "Meltdown: What Really Happened at Fukushima?" by Jake Adelstein and David McNeill, reports -- based on interviews with eyewitnesses, as well as a careful review of the catastrophe's timeline and even documented admissions made by Tokyo Electric Power Company itself -- that major damage to piping and other safety significant structures at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 -- the oldest reactor at the site -- may very well have begun the first meltdown, even before the tsunami hit. The article reports:

"The reason for official reluctance to admit that the earthquake did direct structural damage to reactor one is obvious. Katsunobu Onda, author of TEPCO: The Dark Empire, who sounded the alarm about the firm in his 2007 book explains it this way: 'If TEPCO and the government of Japan admit an earthquake can do direct damage to the reactor, this raises suspicions about the safety of every reactor they run. They are using a number of antiquated reactors that have the same systematic problems, the same wear and tear on the piping.' "

The article adds:

"On May 15, TEPCO went some way toward admitting at least some of these claims in a report called 'Reactor Core Status of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit One.' The report said there might have been pre-tsunami damage to key facilities including pipes. 'This means that assurances from the industry in Japan and overseas that the reactors were robust is now blown apart,' said Shaun Burnie, an independent nuclear waste consultant. 'It raises fundamental questions on all reactors in high seismic risk areas.' "

Tsunamis are even more rare than already rare earthquakes. Thus, tsunami risks -- including to U.S. reactors -- can more easily be portrayed by the nuclear establishment in industry and government as exceedingly improbable -- even though a radioactively catastrophic one has just happened in Japan. Not only Tepco and the Japanese federal government were quick to obscure earthquake damage at Fukushima Daiichi, focusing attention on the tsunami's impact instead. Exelon Nuclear's CEO, John Rowe, who "serves" on President Obama's and Energy Secretary Chu's "Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future," was quick to downplay the earthquake's impact at Fukushima, instead highlighting the tsunami. An Exelon statement dated March 14th began:

"Exelon is closely monitoring the situation in Japan as it continues to unfold. While there is still a great deal we don’t know, from all information the company received so far, it appears that the damage to the Japanese plants was primarily related to the tsunami, not the earthquake."

A common "red herring" refrain of the U.S. nuclear industry since March 11th is that tsunamis are impossible at the many inland reactors across the U.S., while largely or entirely ignoring earthquake risks themselves, as well as other pathways (tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, fires, power outages, mechanical failure, human error, intentional attack, etc.) that could plunge reactors into station blackout, followed within hours by core meltdown and days by high-level radioactive waste storage pool fires.