Good Night, and Good Luck!: Chernobyl

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Dienstag, 11. März 2014

Fukushima ... ongoing catastrophe for 3 years

This week, Japan has the tragic obligation to be remembered of 2 catastrophes that will have changed the country forever. There is first of all, the unprecedented Tōhoku earthquake, that rocked the empire of the sun with a 9.0 magnitude quake and the resulting tsunami cost the lives of over 15.000 people. As if this wasn't enough, the Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered 3 fatal meltdowns after being hit by the tsunami. The failure in all cooling systems led to the 2nd biggest release of radioactive material, the biggest since Chernobyl.

The Japanese reactors had been declared virtually prone to failure and accidents by the nuclear lobby. The argument that Nuclear accidents happen only in ramshackled old Soviet plants was finally broken: Not only did the triple meltdown at Daiichi Nuclear Powerplant in Fukushima cause environmental damage by radiation, but the health of the entire Japanese population is put at risk, with huge cost of a meltdown, which TEPCO, the exploiting firm will not be made accountable for. The heavy financial cost of a meltdown is inevitably borne by the public, not by the companies that created and operated the plants. None of the world's 450 nuclear reactors are invulnerable to human error, catastrophes, terrorism or ageing.

As a reaction to Fukushima and slow evacuation, 160,000 people fled their homes because of radioactive contamination, and continue to live without compensation in inhumane conditions. On this day, FYEG says NO to NUCLEAR POWER, and strongly calls upon the Japanese government to take on the fight of the people from Date-City, Tomioka, Minamisoma, Fukushima and many other cities ravaged by radiation. In a country that suffered the only dropping of a Nuclear bomb on a civil target... twice, we find it highly unusual that the brave people from Fukushima Prefecture are kept alone. On this date we reach out our hearts and thoughts to the victims of the Tōhoku earthquake, the Daiichi nuclear disaster, and all other victims that the civil and military use of nuclear energy have cost mankind.

This Article was written by Phillippe Schockweiler and published on www.fyeg.org

Donnerstag, 22. August 2013

Mainstreaming Fukushima - The Truth is out there

“This time no one dropped a bomb on us … We set the stage, we committed the crime with our own hands, we are destroying our own lands, and we are destroying our own lives.”

Haruki Murakami, Japanese best-selling author and philosopher

Crippled reactor 4 - via Kyodo

The past two weeks were a breakthrough for the awareness of the situation in Fukushima...internationally. Whereas International media are quite accurately depicting the worsening situation in Fukushima and quite correctly pointing out the high chance of an international decade long catastrophe, the Japanese Media are still in a total blackout. This ignorance peaked yesterday in the reopening of the beaches in Fukushima City when international experts warn of a possible thousand year long contamination of the food chain and life in the Pacific ocean.

What is leaking in the moment & What you need to know

Leak Problem 1: Storage Tanks for radioactive waters

2-3 tanks for storing used highly-radioactive waste water from exploitation and processing are currently leaking and having been classed by the operation firm (Tepco) as an INES-3 "serious accident"

"The leak, which has not been plugged, is so contaminated that a person standing 50 cm away would, within an hour, receive a radiation dose five times the average annual global limit for nuclear workers. After 10 hours, a worker in that proximity to the leak would develop radiation sickness with symptoms including nausea and a drop in white blood cells" (via Japan Today via Reuters)

Leak Problem 2: Underground Water & Quench/Cleaning Water leak

Water from clean up processes but also tsunami water continues to sink into the ground, thus poisoning the groundwater but also escaping in large amounts into the Pacific. This process cannot be stopped. We fail the technology to stop such processes.

"Frankly, I don’t believe so. I think we will continue to release radioactive material into the ocean for 20 or 30 years at least. They have to pump the water out of the areas surrounding the nuclear reactor. But frankly, this water is the most radioactive water I’ve ever experienced. I work directly over a nuclear reactor cores during refueling outages. And the water directly over a nuclear reactor core when the plant is operating is a thousand times less radioactive than this water. (Arie Gundersen via GlobalResearch.org)"

Leak Problem 3: Ridiculous amount of Radiation released:

The Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety(Japan) said the amount of the isotope that flowed into the ocean from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant between March 21 and mid-July reached an estimated 27.1 quadrillion becquerels(Caesium-137). A quadrillion is equivalent to 1,000 trillion. [...]The report also said the Pacific was polluted at an exceptional speed because the plant stands in a coastal area with strong currents (Tepco via Kyodo-Agency via)

July, 2013: It is believed that more than 5,000 tons of radioactive water still remain in the pit ... and trenches after flowing from the No. 2 reactor building to the turbine building and, then, into the pit.

(Asahi-Media via enenews)

July 28 : A cable trench running under the turbine building of the No. 2 reactor [...] contained 2.35 billion becquerels [per liter] of cesium and 750 million becquerels of other, unnamed radioactive substances, including strontium, that emit beta rays. (Japan Today)

N.B the norm is 150bq !

Leak Problem 4: Fueltanks in miserable shape:

Like I have reported here previously, the leaks in the fuel tanks are still the biggest problem. Yesterday during recuperation of used fuel rods in the cooling fuel tanks a major reaction appeared as workers tried to pull out the radioactive rods. The momentary situation was very well resumed in yesterday's RT-Online article by Christopher Busby, European Committee on Radiation Risks, University of Ulster:

This showed that there would be some 200,000 extra cancers in roughly 10 million population in the 200km radius of the site in the next 10 years, and 400,000 over 50 years. (in 2011)

... Probably because it is now clear that the saturation of the ground from all the pumping water for cooling the several reactors and spent fuel pools has destabilized the foundations of the buildings, TEPCO is bringing forward its operation to try and deal with what is perhaps the most dangerous of the four sites, the spent fuel pond of Reactor 4. For this pond contains a truly enormous amount of radioactive material: 1,331 spent fuel grids amounting to 228.3 tons of Uranium and Plutonium buried inside a swimming pool which has already dried out once and exploded. That explosion blasted a significant, but unknown, quantity of lethally radioactive bits and pieces of fuel element around the site (where I heard they were bulldozed into the ground - who knows?), but it also blew the top off the building, covered the fuel elements under the water with rubble and pieces of crane machinery, and no doubt twisted and melted a large proportion of the remaining spent fuel. Then what happens? Not quite Armageddon, but as far as Japan is concerned, almost. I bet they have contingency plans to evacuate the northern island to Korea, China, anywhere. A lot of this radiation will end up in the USA, a long way downwind, admittedly, but then there is an awful lot of radioactivity involved.

Leak Problem 5: It's illegal but the last option:

The mass dumping of highly radioactive water (measured at 7.5 million times the normal allowed levels) into the Pacific Ocean is not just an environmental disaster; it’s also a violation of international law. The Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, passed in 1972, forbids nations and companies from dumping toxic wastes into the ocean. (See Maritime Convention on Prevention of Pollution by waste and toxic matter dumping also named London Convention or L72)

In a nutshell:

The Fukushima power plant is leaking unstoppably for the next decades from many ends, with the highest amount of radioactivity ever measured. The sheer amount and speed in which it is dispersed into the Pacific ocean and starts pollution the environment and food chain (P.S: Bluefin tuna in Californian Waters are already spiking high amounts of radioactive isotopes) is leading towards the biggest man-made environmental disaster which could lead to millions of casulties.

What needs to be done:

- Harm Reduction

- Try to stop leaks where possible (Groundwater leaks virtually impossible to stop)

- Dispatch Military forces to help with the cleanup, JDF & International Troops

- Start an immediate international fund for relief

- Declare the North, Central and South-Eastern Pacific a fishing-free zone, monitor closely the situation

- Stop eating fishing and shellfish products from the pacific ocean

Montag, 23. April 2012

Health issues & radiation sickness in Japan

For many months now, the first reports, studies and peer reviews have been published on the issue of health effects of the Fukushima-Dai'ichi disaster. Especially children are the most affected of radiation sicknesses and diseases such as thyroid problems, acute cardiovascular diseases, cancers, lumps and irrefutable cell damage, because their immune systems are not fully developed. A study conducted in the Fukushima prefecture on 3375 children showed:

"Total number of children tested: 3765
No. of children found with lumps 5.1 millimeters and larger: 26 (0.7% of total)
No. of children found with lumps smaller than 5.1 millimeters: 1117 (29.7% of total)1143 children, or 30.4% of children tested, were found with lumps of varying sizes. 26 children (0.7%) have been found with lumps with 5.1 millimeters or larger in diameter, and will go through further testing [at some time]. However, Shunichi Yamashita, the head of the commission and the vice president of Fukushima Medical University explains, "There is no malignant change due to the nuclear plant accident". Of 3739 children who will not need further testing (99.3% of children tested), 1117 children (29.7%) have been found with lumps 5.0 millimeters or less in diameter. But the prefectural government has decided they are "benign". (1)

Already last year, in May 2011 Satoshi Tashiro, senior professor of the Hiroshima University had discovered in 550 out of 1100 children's thyroids high and health threatening levels of radiation, up to 0,1 - 0,2 mSv/ h. (2) Regarding the fact that especially children are extremely vulnerable to radiation because their immune system is not yet fully developed and that they are irradiated and exposed to highly radioactive sources of radiation, and contaminated by local food, dust and water, we must unfortunately be ready to predict a high number of children cancers and genetic defects over the next decades, probably worse then Chernobyl. But also unborn life is severely affected by radiation: Examiner.com resumed the risks and threats very well in an article from June 2011:

"In the ultimate nuclear nightmare scenario now unfolding, Japanese local newspapers have attributed sickness in children to Fukushima's nuclear meltdowns, the radioactive levels now elevated throughout eastern Japan. Children over 32 miles from ground zero are suffering fatigue, diarrhea, and nosebleeds, the three most common of eight radiation sickness signs, the three in the earliest stage Tokyo Shinbun newspaper reported that many Japanese children have "inexplicable" symptoms. Each symptom described are among the first experienced with radiation sickness. Japan is dangerously contaminated by radioactivity over a far larger area than previously reported by TEPCO and the central government according to new reports from multiple sources," the Daily Kos reported. The prefectural government of Iwate released new data that shows radioactive contamination of grass exceeds safety standards at a distance of 90 to 125 miles from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plants. Children become radiated when they drink milk and eat dairy products from cows feeding on radioactive grass, even at low levels according to the world's foremost anti-nuclear campaigner, Dr. Helen Caldicott, and other independent scientists. Radioactive materials concentrate in milk" and many other food products. (5)

Pediatricians around Japan but mostly in a 200km radius around Fukushima report of more and more children attended by radiation sickness and describing the typical symptoms:

" Tomoyuki Yamazaki, a Japanese doctor ... in Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan who provides medical counseling at the information center every month, said in an email to ENInews that an increasing number of children he has seen “have nosebleeds that don’t stop, diarrhea, dark circles under their eyes, and incurable stomatitis [an inflammation of the mucous linings in the mouth]. A growing number of children [at the centre] have pains in their chests.” [...] (6)

The fear and growing rumors of miscarriages have been denied by the government although first analysis and statistics point in a different direction. The University of Fukushima disinforms the public by telling them that currently 28 pregnancies in Fukushima are resulting in a miscarriage out of 100 , but that would be a rather normal number. One third of the pregnancies ending in a miscarriage an this is supposed to be normal? The disinformation these days doesn't seem to know any limits. (7) Another less acadamical but interesting report came from the Morning-TV of AsahiTV. Apparently, mutations are also visible in botanic life: Reporters claimed that many mutations in flowers and plants have occurred and showed images of mutated dandelions. (8) The disinformation from the government takes unprecedented levels of absurdity. Sebastian Pflugbeil, a respected German Nuclear Expert and chairman of the Society for Radiation Protection, visited the Fukushima area and was shocked to find a beauty pageant in Fukushima for the prettiest girl who ate only food from Fukushima area. This pageant was supported and sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture. (9) The typical eye-swelling especially in small children has also occured in Fukushima and surrounding areas. Swollen red eyes, as observed in Chernobyl are a typical symptom of thyroid disorder and have been reported in Japan especially by parents whose children played in contaminated sand boxes or playgrounds. (10)

Leukemia cases and fear of Leukemia in Japan is on the rise. A senior Japanese journalist, covering the Fukushima case since march 2011 developed acute lymphocytic leukemia and died after 3 weeks (3). In a recent survey a lot of Japanese people show they are preoccupied about becoming sick and scientist talk about a massive psychotic disorder caused by both the accident and the coverup by Japanese authorities:

"Despite the fact that the Japanese government and TEPCO were caught red-handed underplaying the severity of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, a study has found that almost a quarter of Fukushima residents hospitalized in the aftermath of last year’s devastating earthquake and tsunami were treated as having a “psychiatric disorder” because of their concerns over radiation. The phenomenon of authorities underplaying the threat posed by radiation or even characterizing concerns over it as a mental illness has become a dominant theme since the catastrophe just over a year ago. This is despite the fact that Japanese authorities were caught over and over again lying to cover-up the true scale of the disaster.“Some 24.4 percent of people who were hospitalized in Fukushima with psychiatric disorders in the wake of the outbreak of the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant had done so possibly because of fears of radiation exposure, according to the results of research conducted by psychiatrists at Fukushima Medical University,” reports the Mainichi Daily News" (11)

After 13 months, the whole impact of the catastrophe is yet far from being measurable. The fact that still 3 reactors are out of control and 6 spent fuel pools are beyond repair does however predict a rather pessimistic future.

Sources:

(1) http://ex-skf.blogspot.de/2012/01/1117-children-over-30-of-3739-tested.html via Fukushima Minpo Newspaper

via http://www.minpo.jp/view.php?pageId=4107&blockId=9927368&newsMode=article

(2) http://internationalnucleareventscale7.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/radiation-found-in-up-to-50-of-childrens-thyroid-glands

(3) http://enenews.com/journalist-dies-of-acute-lymphocytic-leukemia-was-living-inside-30-km-zone-to-support-fukushima

(4) http://fukushima-diary.com/2011/12/mhlw-ignores-the-medical-statistics-of-fukushima-and-a-part-of-miyagi/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FukushimaDiary+%28Fukushima+Diary%29
via http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/informationView.do?bcd=1

(5) http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/children-sickness-linked-to-fukushima-radiation

(6) http://www.eurasiareview.com/18042012-japan-fukushima-woman-organizes-radiation-information-centers-at-church/

(7) http://enenews.com/japan-times-28-of-every-100-fukushima-pregnancies-resulted-in-miscarriage-or-abortion-of-course-we-didnt-believe-the-rumor-but-we-just-wanted-to-confirm-that-it-was-groundless-says-survey-l

(8) http://enenews.com/report-asahi-tv-show-airs-photos-of-mutated-plants-in-tokyo-same-program-to-feature-dire-situation-at-no-4-fuel-pool-asked-audience-to-send-in-more-examples-photo

(9) http://japanfocus.org/events/view/142

(10) http://enenews.com/eye-swelling-is-a-symptom-of-thyroid-disorder-i-often-hear-how-children-eyes-become-swollen-after-going-in-radiation-contaminated-sandpits-remember-the-kitty-video

(11) http://www.infowars.com/fear-of-radiation-treated-as-psychiatric-disorder-in-fukushima/

Further information:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/world/asia/japan-studies-radiation-effects-on-children.html?_r=1

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/04/yamashita-banned-recording-findings-suggestive-of-thyroid-nodule/

http://www.facebook.com/notes/chernobyl-children-fukushima-children/chernobyl-deaths/180964705325501

http://tekknorg.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/children-radiation-maps-2/

Mittwoch, 11. April 2012

Serious incidents in France and South Korea leave many questions:

On April 5^th, 2 fires in reactor 2, in the French Nuclear Power Plant “Penly” provoked a radioactive leak in the primary pumping system releasing 2300 litres of radioactive cooling water per hour. In a first reaction, Bruno Chareyron, senior researcher at the independent nuclear institute CRIRAAD announced that the accident is to be taken very seriously. A serious damage in the primary circuit on the pumping system that allows the reactor to be cooled down is a very serious matter. He asks how is it possible to have a malfunctioning pump with oil leaks, and what is the cause of it? Poor maintenance or low quality material? Furthermore the French Nuclear Safety Agency ASN has not yet commentated on the health state of both firefighters and workers who intervened at the NPP Penly. They can very well protect themselves against radioactive contamination but not against the irradiation from the source. In the case of Penly, regarding the fact that highly radioactive cooling water containing many sorts of radioactive isotopes escaped from the primary system, the irradiation of the workers and firefighters must have heen important. Furthermore the question of the consequences for the environment have not (yet) been addressed by French authorities: EDF, who exploit the NPP Penly reassured that all of the leaking water was caught in special buckets. The question remains how much more these containers could have retained if the leak had not been stopped. These waters will be treated and most probably thrown into the ocean. Knowing that tritium cannot be processed, an important tritium amount will thus be liberated into the Channel. (The nuclear power plant in Penly has already a certificate issued by ASN to drop 72 000 000 000 000 bequerels per year into the Channel) Saying that the impact on the environment is not a risk, is thus a very quick and false conclusion by French authorities. In the next weeks and months it is up to the authorities and also us to check if the tritium readings in the Channel by have substantially risen or not. In another reaction Greenpeace France calls for an immediate stop of all French Nuclear reactors and an urgent petitions EDF and ASN to quickly check all the pumping systems in the “French nuclear park”. The French blog “Le Blog de Fukushima” has published an not really scientific nor representative but yet interesting map of the fallout of Chernobyl and Fukushima applied to Penly. Possible scenarios would imply the evacuation of Bruges, Brussels, London, Eindhoven, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Paris, or important parts of France's Northern seaboard, South East England or entire countries like Belgium or Luxembourg.

Penly, was without any doubt a very close call. Another near accident happened several weeks ago in the South Korean nuclear power plant in Kori the country's oldest station. The incident itself had been kept in the dark for several weeks before South Korean authorities decided to publish it. On February 9^th 2012, the reactor was shut down for inspection. After that, the whole reactor system lost all power and diesel generators failed. The plant was without power for 12 minutes. This is a very serious incident. Electricity failures and problems with energy supply are the most critical events that can happen at a station: No power meaning that neither the reactor can be cooled nor can the chain reaction be controlled. After 12 minutes the electricity in Kori was restored and the workers could stabilize the reactor. One doesn't want to imagine what could have happened in South Korea if the workers hadn't had managed to reestablish the energy supply.

What do these incidents teach us? Especially the incident in Penly shows us that the E.U stress tests did not improve the security of French nuclear power stations. The disastrous state of some plants remain the same. A serious incident seems in France likely and only a matter of time.

Sources:

http://fukushima.over-blog.fr/article-si-penly-103019984.html

http://www.asn.fr/index.php/S-informer/Actualites

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/

http://leblogpolitiquedebernardfrau.20minutes-blogs.fr/archive/2012/04/06/grave-evenement-a-la-centrale-de-penly.html

http://www.irsn.fr/FR/base_de_connaissances/Nucleaire_et_societe/penly3_debat-public/Documents/IRSN_Reponse-CPDP-Penly-3_Q82.pdf

http://www.criirad.org/actualites/dossier2012/penly/penly.html

Images:
- Getty Images 2012 (c)
- (c) Fukushima "Le Blog"

Dienstag, 13. März 2012

Interview with Keith Baverstock

During the “Fukushima 1 Year” Conference, organized in the European Parliament by the Green Group (Greens/EFA) I had the chance to interview Keith Baverstock. “Docent (adjunct professor) in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Eastern Finland, Keith Baverstock studies the effect of ionizing radiation on the cells and has taken over the years a special interest in effects of low doses of radiation, the toxicity of depleted uranium and the consequences of accidents such as Chernobyl and now Fukushima.”*

Photo: Christian Gapp (c)

Approximately 1 year after the Fukushima catastrophe, how do you see the situation in Japan:

Baverstock: Well, I think the situation is pretty desperate. But I am limited in what I can say and what that might involve in terms of health effects. Because we simply do not have enough information with which to do that. It's pretty clear that in the village of Iiate and around there, there are people which have been exposed to months to levels which are similar to levels which are present in the settlements around the Chernobyl reactor, and where people stay only for 12 days roughly, at the highest. Those people we haven't been able to study because they've been dispersed. But I think there should be a study of these inhabitants of Iiate, because this is potentially valuable information. But the situation in Japan is quite unprecedented: There are 3 cores that have melted down, actually melted trough almost certainly and the secondary containment has been blown away. So there has been no limit to the release and we saw this huge release of Xenon-133, that's an indication that the fuel has melted and all the volatiles have come of. It is perhaps surprising that not more cesium has come out, certainly there must be still a lot retained in the molten fuel but precisely what is the state of the molten fuel, is it just lying on the reactor floor? Has it eaten into the concrete? Is there a danger of eating all the way trough the concrete? That's getting more remote as time goes by. And nobody can find this out, because nobody can get close enough to see what's happening. So, it's an extremely desperate situation, not at all like the situation that national governments have tried to suggest that, well I mean that one of the most ridiculous things is that the IAEA(International Atomic Energy Agency) reporting several months after the initial meltdown, that in fact these reactors are under cold shutdown. “Cold shutdown” doesn't mean anything if the fuel has run out and is at the bottom of the reactor.

After “Chernobyl” it was difficult for scientists to refer to comparable data. Some people tried to compare at the time “Chernobyl” to the data which had been collected from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now we have a lot of data from “Chernobyl”, can we use it to compare it to Fukushima?

Baverstock: Well I think we do have a lot of data which I think is useful to compare to Fukushima, but even tough it's 26 years since the “Chernobyl accident”, this long delay periods for diseases to appear after exposure. So there's still a lot to learn from the Chernobyl accident, and the European Commission has commissioned a study back in 2008, to see what else could be learned from the Chernobyl accident. And that study, which I was a part of in 2010, with a main recommendation that a long-term lifespan study should be setup, along the lines of the RERS-Study. And so far no action has been taken. We are now in 2012. We've had the Fukushima accident and there's undoubtedly a huge amount of information that would be gained from further studies of the Chernobyl accident in terms of setting up from existing cohorts, a lifespan study. The second thing is at the time of Chernobyl, it may not have looked appropriate to compare the effects of a low dose of radiation spread over a long period of time with the Japanese bomb survivor data. But now, we have enough data from Tetcha-River (river contaminated by the “Mayak Incident”), from radiation worker studies, to show us that there is in fact no difference. In fact it is even possible that exposure at a low-dose rate is even more damaging than exposure to a very short-lived flash of radiation. So it is quite legitimate to use the precisely the values that you get from Japanese bomb survivors and apply them to situations like Chernobyl or Fukushima.

* http://www.kbaverstock.org/ (Keith's personal Webpage with lots of information on both Fukushima and Chernobyl, his publications and interesting data)

Dienstag, 14. Februar 2012

Increase of Death Rate in U.S due to Fukushima-Fallout ?

Is there a connection between Fukushima Nuclear fallout and excess deaths of 14'000 in the U.S ? Renowned nuclear expert Joe Mangano and Janette Sherman, toxicologist and contributing editor of the 2009 New York Academy of Sciences "Chernobyl, Consequences for People and Environment" says yes there is, and it's comparable to the excess rates of U.S deaths from Chernobyl

Furthermore Dr. Sherman told me that "the deaths from Fukushima will be greater than from Chernobyl" and that "the young will be adversely effected by the radiation - their immune and detoxification systems are not fully formed and operational, and based upon their small body weights, they receive a proportionally larger dose of radioisotopes than do adults."* This could explain the excess death rates of young infants in the U.S in the weeks following the Fukushima incident. The 18 page document published by Mangano & Sherman closes on this discussion:

"The Fukushima meltdowns, and the introduction of radioactivity across the

globe, indicate that accurate measurements are needed on subsequent changes in

environmental radioactivity and in health status. In the United States, there have

been limitations in both measures. Radioactivity samples in precipitation, air,

water, and milk were sporadically reported by the Environmental Protection

Agency. Many measurements failed to produce detectable levels, and on May 3,

2011, the agency reverted to its policy of making only quarterly measurements.

Some elevated concentrations were found to be up to several hundred times the

norm soon after the arrival of the Fukushima fallout, but no meaningful temporal

trends and spatial patterns can be discerned from these data.

Few aggregate data on health status are available until several years after a

death or specific diagnosis. Immediately after Fukushima, the only nationwide

health status data available in the United States were weekly deaths by age

reported by 122 U.S. cities (about 25% to 35% of all U.S. deaths), as reported

by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the 14 weeks after the

Fukushima fallout arrived in the United States, total deaths reported were

4.46 percent above the same period in 2010; in the 14 weeks before Fukushima,

the increase from the prior year was just 2.34 percent. The gap in changes for

infant deaths (+1.80% in the latter 14 weeks, –8.37% for the earlier 14 weeks)

was even larger. Estimated “excess” deaths for the entire United States were

projected to be 13,983 total deaths and 822 infant deaths.

Patterns of deaths among persons of all ages strongly reflect patterns among

the elderly, who account for over two-thirds of all deaths. For the older population,

explanations for excess deaths must be considered after exposure to higher

levels of radioactive fallout. If cancer in some patients becomes active again,

it may mean they already have cells carrying all but one of the three to four

requisite mutations to express cancer. Exposure to radiation (or a toxic chemical)

can provide the one final mutation to reactivate a quiescent tumor (17). Also

vulnerable are those elderly with depressed immune status, made worse by

exposure to radiation.

The CDC weekly mortality data have limitations. They represent only a 25

to 35 percent sample of all deaths, which may or may not accurately represent

the entire nation. Deaths are reported voluntarily and thus are subject to variations

from city to city and for unusual circumstances in a week or period (e.g., totals

during the Christmas holiday season appear to be much lower). Weekly totals

are sometimes reported as unavailable and so cannot be used in any analysis.

The deaths reported are by city of occurrence, whereas all final statistics are

by residence at time of death. Deaths are categorized when the death certifi-

cate is filed, not necessarily the date of death. Finally, the CDC weekly reports

provide raw numbers of deaths, not the more useful mortality rates, as popula-

tions or numbers of births are not given.

Nonetheless, 25 to 35 percent of the United States is not a small sample,

representing all large cities and many smaller ones in all regions of the nation.

When extended periods are used, the numbers become larger and more

meaningful, because any variations increasing or decreasing death counts are

more likely to balance each other out. The total of 155,015 U.S. deaths in the

14-week period after Fukushima, 2,722 of which are infant deaths, represents a

large database that is meaningful in a preliminary analysis of potential Fukushima

effects. Not to use them would mean a two- or three-year absence of any health

status data, until final figures are made public.

The statistically significant difference in increased number of reported deaths

(total and infant) for the 14-week period after Fukushima has an added dimen-

sion because of similar findings for the four months immediately after the

Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, using a 10 percent sample of U.S. deaths. The

post-Chernobyl increases, based on preliminary death data, were roughly com-

parable to the increases calculated from final death data (see Appendix Table 2).

The preliminary versus final 1985–1986 change for the period May–August in

total deaths was within 3.7 percentage points (+6.0% vs. +2.3%), and the count

of infant deaths was within 3.0 percentage points (+3.1% vs. +0.1%). Thus, it is

unlikely that, for Fukushima, final death counts would show results markedly

different from the finding that more Americans, especially infants, died than

expected in the 14-week period following arrival of the Fukushima fallout.

The 14-week excess death projections after mid-March 2011 (13,983 total,

822 infant) are relatively similar to actual excesses in May–August 1986 (16,573

total, 306 infant).

Recent assessments have suggested that the amount of radioactivity released

from Fukushima equals or exceeds that released from Chernobyl. Given the

continuing emission of radioisotopes from the melted reactors, the high density

of population around the plant, and the close proximity to food sources, we can

expect that morbidity and mortality will be high in Japan. The relative homo-

geneity of the Japanese population will allow for comparison of health conse-

quences for people living in areas with lesser and greater levels of contamination,

as has been done in areas affected by Chernobyl.

Adverse health effects may also be expected in the United States, even though

exposures have been far below those in Japan. Low-dose radiation exposure,

previously assumed to be harmless, has been linked with elevated disease rates

in children born to women who underwent pelvic X-rays while pregnant (18),

Americans exposed to atomic bomb fallout (19), nuclear plant workers (20),

and, for leukemia, children exposed to very low doses after Chernobyl (21).

In addition to physical diseases is loss of cognitive ability in adolescents fol-

lowing low-dose ionizing radiation in utero (22).

The human fetus and infant are especially radiosensitive, given their rapid

cell growth and cell division, as well as their small size that results in a propor-

tionately larger dose. These exposures include X-ray, alpha, beta, and gamma

radiation. Depending on the time of in utero radiation exposure, the result can be

expressed as spontaneous abortion, premature birth, low birth weight, stillbirth,

infant death, congenital malformations, and brain damage.

While this report concentrates on effects to humans, all life is sensitive to

nuclear radiation exposure, including plants, fungi, insects spiders, birds, fish,

and other animals (23). The best-studied group near Chernobyl (birds) shows

a 50 percent decrease in species richness and a 66 percent drop in abundance in

the most contaminated areas, compared with normal background in the same

neighborhood (24).

More importantly, the findings reported here, plus the disease patterns that

developed after Chernobyl, indicate that public health personnel can anticipate

and plan to put in place diagnostic and treatment procedures. Given the con-

tinued high levels of radioactive iodine, it is predicted that the incidence of

thyroid disease, including thyroid insufficiency in newborns and thyroid cancer

in children and adults, will increase (4, 25).

The health effects of exposure to radioactivity from the Fukushima meltdowns,

both in Japan and around the world, will take a long time to fully assess. The

paucity of data from the U.S. EPA is unfortunate and will hamper future studies.

A quarter of a century after the Chernobyl disaster, and more than 60 years after

the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, compilations of health casualties

are still being updated. It is critical that research should proceed with all due

haste, as answers are essential to early diagnosis and treatment for exposed

people, particularly children and the very young."

(Mangano & Sherman, Increase of U.S Mortality and Fukushima Fallout, 2011-2012)

Altough this is by far not a finished study, it gives disturbing and inconveniant hints that even low-level radiation doses cause serious health problems. The whole study can be read here:Mangano & Sherman Study

* Email correspondance with Dr. Janette Sherman from February, 8th 2012.

Dienstag, 13. Dezember 2011

News from Fukushima & Chernobyl

New scientific reports from Fukushima talk about at least 1 nuclear explosion in Unit III at the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zakzak.co.jp%2Fzakspa%2Fnews%2F20111213%2Fzsp1112130929001-n1.htm&lp=ja_en&btnTrUrl=Translate
New evidence shows that the North American Hemisphere received important parts of the Fukushima fallout. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/02/opinion/magazine-global-agenda-enough-is-enough.html Expedition from South Carolina University to Chernobyl shows a high rate of mutations:

Donnerstag, 3. November 2011

Fukushima 8 Months Later

N.B for the English Article scroll down

Seit mehreren Tagen liest man in der Presse wieder vermehrt Berichte über den havarierten Atommeiler in Fukushima. In der Tat hat sich die Situation in Japan weiterhin verschlechtert. Die wohl am häufigsten gebrachte Nachricht der letzten Tage, Xenon-Gase seien in der Nähe des Kraftwerkes gemessen worden bestätigen somit die monatelange Befürchtung internationaler Experten: Es gibt eine unkontrollierbare Kernspaltung womöglich sogar in mehreren Reaktoren des beschädigten Kraftwerkes. Was bedeutet dies konkret: Xenon 133 und 135 sind radioaktive Gase die bei einer Kernspaltung freigesetzt werden. Die Halbwertzeit dieser Elemente sind zwar recht kurz von mehreren Stunden bis ein paar Tage, jedoch kann eine unkontrollierte Kettenreaktion zu weiteren Explosionen oder Freisetzung von noch mehr radioaktivem Material führen. Die Situation ist also somit sehr angespannt. Die Betreiberfirma Tepco pumpt weiterhin Borsäure in die havarierten Reaktoren um die unkontrollierte Kernspaltung zu stoppen. Neuesten Berichten zufolge bringt dies jedoch recht wenig, gegen Abend des 3. Novembers (Tokioter Zeit) entweicht weiterhin Xenon Gas aus dem havarierten Reaktor. Bei Tepco rechnet man nicht mehr vor Ende des Jahres damit die Kernspaltung unter Kontrolle zu bekommen. Doch immer mehr Studien werden in Japan publiziert mit teils dramatischen Ergebnissen: Dr. Masimichi Nishio, Kinderarzt und Leiter der nordjapanischen "Hokkaido Cancer Center" kennt das Problem: Zwischen 1995 und 2005 betreute er Kinder aus der Evakuierungszone von Tschernobyl und kommt zu der Schlussfolgerung, dass die Symptome bei japanischen Kindern ähnlich sind: Nasenbluten, Halsschmerzen, Müdigkeit, Durchfall geschwollene Lymphknoten, unerträgliche Kopf- und Bauchschmerzen. Auch die Fälle akuter Leukämie häufen sich an. Dr. Nishio verurteilt die japanische Regierung die weiterhin behauptet diese Symptome stammen von ganz normalen saisonalen Erkältungen. Weitere Symptome sind das Anschwellen der Augen, welches auch in Tschernobyl bei Mensch und Tieren beobachtet werden konn(t)en. Das folgende Bild zeigt das angeschwollene Auge einer Katze in Japan, nahe Fukushima.

Due to numerous requests, every article I publish on Fukushima will also feature an English translation

8 months after the Fukushima-Daiichi the situation in Japan still worsens: New measurements confirm the presence of Xenon 135 & 133 gazes. Xenon is only generated during nuclear fission, proving thus that there is an uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction going on in at least 2 reactors. On November 2nd, Tepco workers tried to stop the reaction by injection boric acid fluid into the reactor core, but haven't succeeded to cool down or stop the reaction. As the workers still struggle to gain control over the crippled reactors, Japanese pediatricians are very concerned about the rising number of acute leukemia cases and rising number of radiation sickness & poisonings. Dr. Nishio, Director of the Hokkaido Cancer Center is criticizing the Japanese government for not acting "appropriately". Japanese Health officials and the Ministry of Health state that symptoms such as diarrhea, paleness, headaches, swollen lymph notes, nose bleeds are merely signs of colds and not the radiation sickness. Dr. Nishio is renowned pediatrician and knows the subject of children exposed to radioactivity very well: Between 1995 and 2005 he travelled numerous times to the exclusion zone of Chernobyl and studied the effect of radiation on kids. More and more Japanese doctors are talking about swollen eyes, a typical symptom that can be observed when the thyroid has been exposed to huge amounts of radioactivity. (check picture of cat from Fukushima Prefecture) Kittens with swollen eyes in Fukushima Prefecture)
Katze aus der Evakuierungszone zeigen haben angeschwollene Augen, ein akutes Zeichen, dass die Schilddrüse radioakivem Material ausgesetzt ist.

Dr. Nishio from the Hokkaido Cancer Center shares his views:

Donnerstag, 17. März 2011

No Comment . . .

FUKUSHIMA 2011

CHERNOBYL 1986

Freitag, 24. September 2010

A Sarcophagus for Chernobyl?

Nearly 25 years after the Chernobyl Incident, a French consortium "Novarka" has started working this week to complete a second sarcophagus for the reactor block IV that exploded in April 1986. "Novarka" founded in 2007 for the sole purpose of constructing a mobile sarcophagus is a French-German Joint Venture that was formed mainly out of "Vinci-Group", "Nukem", "Bouyges" and "Hochtief". Most of those actors are famous in the nuclear business: Hochtief built a number of German reactors in the 60s and 70s. Nukem, which actually was one of the first German firms to dispose nuclear waste had its authorisations to dispose nuclear waste removed by the German Federal Ministry of Environment, in 1986 and consecutively in 1987 for exceeding Cobalt-60, Plutonium and Caesium-135 norms. Nukem was taken over by a Russian group in 2007.

After knowing now that with "Novarka" everything is in safe-hands (Beware: Irony!), let's return to the sarcophagus, The Sacrophagus will be placed on rails so it can be placed over the reactor. Goal is to have a waterproof shelter to cover the reactor block, and stop water from penetrating into the reactor core. If everything goes by plan, the greatest movable structure in the world (270m X 150m X 100m) will be achieved in late 2013.

However many questions remain: The "Novarka" sarcophagus will not allow to stop sporadic radiation to exit the reactor. Still of a mystery to scientists, radiation sometimes seems to escape the reactor block even tough all radioactive material had been removed. The radioactive heritage of Chernobyl needs not a simple sarcophagus. Thryoid cancers, down syndrom, leukemia and deformations are skyrocketting. The region needs much more than a simple roof to cover up, but needs urgent recovery plans. A new statistic published in "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences)" by Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, Alexey V. Nesterenko, and Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger that takes into account figures from 5000 existing studies around the globe, fixes a new horrifying death toll of 986 000 and counting...

Dienstag, 20. April 2010

Filmsoirée op dem Tschernobyl-Dag

DEI JONK GRENG invitéieren um 24. Joeresdaag vun der Tschernobyl-Katastrophe op en Anti-Atom Owend am Exit07. Mir wéisen am an dëssem Kader den präissgekréinten ARTE Dokumentarfilm vun 2009 "Déchets, Le Cauchemar du Nucléaire" vum Laure Noualhat an Eric Guéret. Den Film ass eng Rees duercht ganz Welt matt der Sich no der Art a Weis wéi di verschidden Atommuechten wi England, Frankreich, Russland an d' USA hieren Atommüll "entsuergen".

19.30 EXIT07, 1, rue de L' Acierie Luxembourg-Ville
ENTREE GRATUITE
Nom Film gëtt et en Patt an eng kléng Diskussiounsronn
Pot d' Amitié et discussions après le film

Au 24eme "anniversaire" de la catastrophe de Tchernobyl, DEI JONK GRENG invitent sur une soirée anti-nucléaire. Nous montrons le documentaire, "Déchets. Le Cauchemar du Nucléaire" de Laure Nouhalat et Eric Guéret produit pour ARTE. Le film révèle des documents inédits sur le traitement des déchets nucléaires en France, Angleterre, Russie et dans les Etats-Unis.