Beyond Nuclear speaks out against Fukushima Daiichi radioactive wastewater dumping in the Pacific Ocean
Kevin's statement, with Japanese subtitles:
Environmental Impacts
The entire nuclear fuel chain involves the release of radioactivity that contaminates the environment. Radiation can affect the air, water, soil, plants, animals, places of residence and recreation and elsewhere.
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Kevin's statement, with Japanese subtitles:
Beyond Nuclear joined with 70 other organizations in writing to Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. The coalition is urging the Japanese national government to reverse its unwise and dangerous decision, announced two months ago, to begin -- a couple years from now -- dumping 330+ million gallons (1.25+ million metric tonnes, or 1.25 billion+ liters) of highly radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Beyond Nuclear press release, done in collaboration with the Institute for Public Accuracy.
The government says the plan is the best way to dispose of water used to prevent the ruined nuclear plant’s damaged reactor cores from melting.
As reported by the New York Times.
The New York Times also ran a companion piece, focused on the official international protest of the ocean dumping, as by the neighboring governments of South Korea, China, and Taiwan.
The Washington Post has also reported on this story.
Thom Hartmann interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps on his national radio show ("Fukushima Nuclear Fish Coming to Your Plate, Happy?"). Here is the write up:
More nuclear waste is about to be released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima. Where it will be absorbed by plants, eaten by small fish, who are eaten by bigger fish, and concentrated through a process called "bioaccumulation." Pretty soon those fish end up on your plate... Looking forward to a swim off the west coast? Enjoying your fish?
Here is the link to the recording of the interview.
[Corrections: The actual volume of radioactive wastewater to be dumped in the ocean is currently enough to fill around 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools; the dumping is not set to begin until a couple years from now, not before the Tokyo Olympics.]
Petition for Leave to Intervene and Request for an Adjudicatory Hearing, filed by attorney Terry Lodge of Toledo, Ohio, on behalf of Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin (PSR WI).
The NextEra Energy Point Beach Nuclear Power Plant Atomic Reactor Units 1 and 2 are located in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, on the Lake Michigan shoreline (see photo, left). PSR WI, backed by experts, contends that Point Beach's negative impacts on Lake Michigan -- such as drawing in hundreds of millions of gallons daily for cooling, then discharging the wastewater super-heated back into the Lake -- has already resulted in significant ecosystem damage for 50 years; 30 more years of operations without cooling towers will only worsen the harm.
Accompanying the petition and request were expert witness declarations:
Declaration of Arnold Gundersen, M.E., Nuclear Engineering, Chief Engineer, Fairewinds Associates, Inc.;
Declaration of Alvin Compaan, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Physics at University of Toledo, and President of Lucintech, Inc.;
Declaration of Mark Cooper, Ph.D., Senior Fellow for Economic Analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, and Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America.