Japanese women staging sit-in at Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry

A group of Japanese women will be staging a sit-in at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Tokyo, October 30-November 5 to call on the Ministry to properly evacuate children and to stop the re-start of reactors across Japan. Please consider sending a message of solidarity to the women of Japan. Send it to info@beyondnuclear.org and we will forward it.  And read more details in English in the flier.

Citizens’ Testing Finds 20 Hot Spots Around Tokyo

"Takeo Hayashida signed on with a citizens’ group to test for radiation near his son’s baseball field in Tokyo after government officials told him they had no plans to check for fallout from the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Like Japan's central government, local officials said there was nothing to fear in the capital, 160 miles from the disaster zone.

"Then came the test result: the level of radioactive cesium in a patch of dirt just yards from where his 11-year-old son, Koshiro, played baseball was equal to those in some contaminated areas around Chernobyl." New York Times

"Separately, a soil sample in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, was found this week to contain strontium-90, an isotope that can accumulate in bones and cause cancer. It was the first time that strontium, with a half-life of 29 years, was detected more than 60 miles from the plant. The strontium was found atop an apartment building in a measurement made by a private agency at a resident’s request." Washington Post

Lessons of Nuclear Power and the Media, San Fran., CA, 12/3/2011

At the request of Japanese anti-nuclear colleagues, Beyond Nuclear is proud to endorse "The Lessons Of Nuclear Power And The Media", to be held December 3, 2011, from 10 AM to 4PM at Burk Hall 28 at San Francisco University (1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco) in California.

After 7 months, Japan keeps failing to stop the radioactive releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Why do we risk similar catastrophes in the US? Why did Japan build 54 reactors, and why do we have 104 operating in the US? Where do we dump radioactive wastes? What do we know about this nuke-industrial complex, and how are people fighting against it in Fukushima, Pan-Asia, California and New York? This educational conference will examine the Fukushima nuclear melt-downs, the role of the media in its coverage of this catastrophe, how this crisis has affected the development of nuclear power, and the education of the public about the industry.

Guest speakers will include Anthony J. Hall (Globalization Studies, University of Lethbridge), Barbara George (Marine Clean Energy), Seungkoo Choi (Christian Network for Nuke-Free Earth), Steve Zeltzer (Labor Video Project), and Yuko Tonohira (Todos Somos Japon).

The event is organized by the No Nukes Action Committee, and supported by the California Nuclear Free Coalition. Endorsers also include Beyond Nuclear, Japan Multicultural Relief Fund, San Francisco Peace and Freedom Party, Shut Down Indian Point Now!, TalkNukes, Todos Somos Japon, and Tri-Valley CARES.

For information, call (415)867-0628 or Email 311bayarea@gmail.com or lvpsf@igc.org

Please spread the word about the event! Print out the flyer now!

From Hiroshima to Fukushima: Japan's Atomic Tragedies

Amy Goodman, author and host of Democracy Now!To commemorate the 66th anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as to reflect on the ongoing Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Amy Goodman (host of the Pacifica Radio Network's Democracy Now!, as well as an author of numerous books) published a column in the Guardian on the secrecy and censorship common to the radioactive disasters of 1945 and 2011. She concludes by quoting 82 year old Sumiteru Taniguchi, director of the Nagasaki Council of A-Bomb Sufferers, who had this to say in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe:

"Nuclear power and mankind cannot coexist. We survivors of the atomic bomb have said this all along. And yet, the use of nuclear power was camouflaged as 'peaceful' and continued to progress. You never know when there's going to be a natural disaster. You can never say that there will never be a nuclear accident."

Japan to offer products from disaster areas as development aid

Japan's Foreign Ministry wants to buy industrial products, including wheelchairs, and marine food products made in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures, to provide them free of charge to developing countries. More