Mayak: The Forgotten Incident - Interview with Nadezha Kuteopva

For a long time, not much had been know about the 1957 Nuclear incident in Mayak in the Ural Mountains of central Russia. The incident which many scientists have ruled as one of the worst in history continues to cause many problems in the concerned region.

(c) O. Connolly - Nadezha Kutepova during the 2011 Ceremony of the "Nuclear Free Future Award"

I spoke with Nadezha Kutepova, Russian environmentalist, sociologist and lawyer born in Ozersk one of the many cities in the Chelyabinsk region, most affected by the Mayak incident. As founder and director of the "Planeta Nadezhd" (engl. Planet of Hopes) NGO, Nadezha Kutepova has lead many court cases and supported over 100 victims and their families for recognition in the Chelyabinsk region, but also in front of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She is the laureate of the 2011 "Nuclear Free Future Award". 

The 1957 incident was the first important accident in the Nuclear Age. For nearly 30 years it was covered up by the Soviet Union? What happened in Mayak and how could the USSR cover up this event for so long?

September 29, 1957 underground tank with high level of liquid radioactive waste exploded in Ozersk (former name Chelyabinsk-65), where Mayak nuclear plant is situated. 20 billions curie of radioactivity in atmosphere and area 23 000 sq.km was contaminated. Officially, information about accident of 1957 was opened only after Chernobyl accident, the reason is the Soviet Government kept secret because nuclear production was a “state secret”. I know that also US American Government had known information about this accident exactly after the accident. The US Government just began to transform military nuclear program to nuclear energy and NPPs, for them was unprofitable that anybody knows about consequences and will be protest against «safe nuclear energy”. My father was victim of this accident, he lived at Sverdlovsk and was mobilized to do the clean up job after accident aged 18, he had terrible cancer as consequences of clean up job and died from it when I was 13.

You yourself were born in the contaminated area in the Chelyabinsk region. Can you tell us about your experience of growing up in that region? 

From one side it was usual life of usual child in provincial soviet city. I have never known anything about nuclear contamination until 1990 year. When information was opened for publicity. From another side I was born and grow up in closed city – soldiers defended our city with fence with border wires and when I was leaving it during summer vacation – parents always reminded me do not tell anybody from each city I am from for reason of state secret and threat of prison.

Still today many people suffer from the consequences of the incident. What are the problems of the people you support?  How do you help them? 

As human rights lawyer I regularly make legal consultations for people of my region, I identify problems, find ways how to defend them and defend them in different levels, including local or regional authority, local or regional court and also European court of human rights. 

How are officials responding to the efforts of you and your organization? Is there a problem of arbitrariness in the Justice system? 

Ever 2 years ago, me and my NGO had terrible pressure from state and intimidation. Now the situation is a little bit better, I am advisor of regional ombudsman and our region has new and young Government. Problems that occurred are for example if is it defense of human and social rights, it is little bit easier than to defense environmental rights or human right in closed city. But I also have threats from officials for example for our "Techa river case", where we prove contamination of Techa and try to obligate "Rosatom" and Government to build sarcophagus and isolate Techa river because regional Government want to receive huge taxes from Mayak for import of nuclear spent fuel from foreign countries, but our activity about Techa river for opinion of regional Government does not allow for Mayak to take NSF and restricts region of taxes of Mayak. They demand to stop any anti-nuclear activity.  

I can’t to tell that there is problem of arbitrariness in the Justice system, I can say about pressure of officials for Justice System. It looks so – usually court takes law’s position of official party not the side of applicants, it means that law and facts has no meaning for court, only position of officials.

What are the main challenges for the next decade in the Chelyabinsk area?

I can tell about main environmental problems in a summary:

1. Mayak nuclear contamination

2. Karabash steel’s production contamination

3. Chelyabinsk steel’s production contamination l

According to new studies, broken pipes and bad maintenance at the Mayak facility have contaminated probably for many decades the grounds and rivers like the "Tetcha"? Can the real amplitude of Mayak actually be measured?

Yes it is true, Techa is most dirty nuclear river, I think now we can name it "open storage of nuclear waste". I think also we will never know about real amplitude of Mayak, we have only little part opened information. Mayak and "Rosatom" resistances. They hide everything what they can . As, I told above we began court proceeding against Russian government and Rosatom to isolate Techa, because still 3 villages with more than 3000 people live near Techa and use water for every day needs. Court make it very slowly, try by different ways to stop it, but we continue. For example we could receive Judgment of former director of Mayak with dates of Prosecutor that Mayak spilled nuclear waste even in 2004! Earlier "Rosatom" lied that they finished the clean-up work in 1962. If we can do it and will win the case, we can finally to isolate Techa, will move people and create evacuation zone. 

What can I do, or interested people outside of Russia to help the victims of Mayak? Where can we find information and how can we help?

They can help for victims personally or through me or our NGO. One German volunteer created web site www.mayak-victims.info, where people can find person for whom they want to help. (the website is still under construction) But 2 kids from this site already received cures, clothes and little money. Also I recommend to use www.antiatom.ru and www.bellona.no for receiving more information about Mayak and consequences of it activity. To get to know us, ARTE made a movie about our NGO work: http://www.arte.tv/de/Die-Welt-verstehen/arte-reportage/ARTE-Reportage/3791320,CmC=3791326.html

Thank you very much for your time.

 Further information and reading:





http://www.chernobylcongress.org/speakers/artikel/5730b1ae9f5c73c4f4924d6f1478ea94/-0782c08f06.html
http://www.nuclear-free.com/deu/KutepovaManzurova.htm
http://www.wecf.eu/english/press/coverage/2011/Nadezhda-Arte.php

http://www.russland.ru/rupol0010/morenews.php?iditem=22920

http://www.nuclear-free.com/PDF/Dubrulle_Speech2011.pdf

http://www.wecf.eu/english/articles/2009/06/courtcase-planetofhopes.php

http://www.arte.tv/de/Die-Welt-verstehen/arte-reportage/ARTE-Reportage/3791320,CmC=3791326.html

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/ 

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"

The End of Japan as we know it ?

The "Atomic Age" is definitely over. So over. 1 year after the Fukushima meltdowns and reactor catastrophes, Japan and important parts could be literally standing on the edge of a razor blade. Not only 4 crippled reactors are still posing an immense health threat, but also the 6 spent fuel basins on the site of the Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant, with spent uranium rods are heavily damaged and are considered by international experts as a huge problem. A new earthquake could very well damage the spent fuel pools and lead to massive leaks of both radioactive materials and cooling water into the ground water and Pacific, but furthermore an uncontrolled chain reaction triggered by the used fuel could mean the end of Japan as we know it today, and trigger a catastrophe of epic proportion. This is not a panicky wake up call, but a desperate description of the situation in Fukushima as it presents itself today. What makes the spent fuel pools in the case of Fukushima so dangerous:

...the spent fuel rod pools that sit right next door to the reactors. The storage pools are packed with radioactive uranium, rise several stories above ground and are always close to the reactor, thus facilitating easy transfer of the fuel rods. Their name— especially “spent” and “pool”— conveys calm dissipation. But spent fuel rod pools are actually highly radioactive, very unstable, extremely dangerous and, compared with reactors, not well supported, contained or looked over. The spent rods give off considerable amounts of “decay heat” and thus must be submerged in constantly circulating water. Expose them to air for a day or two, and they begin to combust, giving off large amounts of radioactive cesium-137, a very toxic, long-lasting, aggressively penetrating radioactive element with a half-life of thirty years. When cesium-137 it enters the environment, it essentially acts like potassium and is taken up by plants and animals that use potassium....(The Nation, C. Parenti 15.03.2012)

The spent fuel pools are situated in the reactor bulding on one of the top floors. We know from the satellite fixes that most roofs of the 4 reactors have collapsed and smoke is still evaporating from the spent-fuel level. This can only lead to the conclusion that the water in the spent-fuel pools is evaporating or worse boiling. Once the cooling waters gone, the used fuel will just catch fire and thus create a chain reaction, a heavy chain reaction in open air, like an open-air reactor, making it impossible to work on any of the other crippled reactors and thus provoking chain reactions in the other fuel tanks and reactors on the Dai-chi site. German State television ZDF recently called this scenario "likely to happen". If that would be the case they had found a word to describe it "Armageddon". Japan would thus cease to exist as we know it today. Chernobyl would be a scratch in comparison to a multiple open-air meltdown & chain reaction, and disturbingly, the Dai-ichi Fukushima Plant has enough material to match up this disaster:

... the spent fuel pools are of significant concern, Marvin Resnikoff, a radioactive waste management consultant, said in a Wednesday press briefing organized by the nonprofit organization Physicians for Social Responsibility. Resnikoff noted that the pools at each reactor are thought to have contained the following amounts of spent fuel, according to Mainichi Daily News:  

Reactor No. 1: 50 tons of nuclear fuel, Reactor No. 2: 81 tons, Reactor No. 3: 88 tons, Reactor No. 4: 135 tons, Reactor No. 5: 142 tonsReactor No. 6: 151 tons 

Also, a separate ground-level fuel pool contains 1,097 tons of fuel; and some 70 tons of nuclear materials are kept on the grounds in dry storage... (Scientific American, K. Harmon 17-03-2012)

The fuel pools are already in a desolate state in reactor 4's spent fuel pools, evaporation and steam could be seen for months now. Ant the spent fuel pools are even visible from outside. The roof has supposedly collapsed.
The blueish area on the center of the picture is the spent fuel pool (c) D. Gutterfelder, AP

The spent fuel pool can be seen from the crane. On this picture TEPCO took a sample measuring both the temperature and isotopes found in the pool. Note the steam on the right side of the picture.
(c) TEPCO / Reuters

What personally strikes me most are metaphysical and sheer existentialist questions, that nuclear energy confronts us with: Not only have we to provide security and stability for the waste of the power plants for more than 200'000 years, that's over 6000 generations, the only human activity that forces us to think in such numbers, but Fukushima could very well be the first time that nuclear energy threatens the integrity of a whole country and region. It is time to end this. And we can, without further ado!  Not tomorrow, but now. Japan has only 1 reactor left in operating mode, 53 are now shut down. China is reviewing their plans of massively building new reactors, even if they are far from perfect, the European stress tests triggered more protests all over the continent. A quick exit is possible in most countries. It is this generation's duty to end the "Atomic Age" or it will end us. This is not a cheesy and pathetic end to an article but a last wake up call, for an industry and political class that failed to learned the lessons from Mayak, Three Mile Island, Sellafield and Chernobyl.

Sources

http://www.thenation.com/article/159234/fukushimas-spent-fuel-rods-pose-grave-danger

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nuclear-fuel-fukushima

Big Hug and Thanks to my fellow good soul Véronique who proof-read my article so late at night

Fukushima: Newsreel & links for last week

Dear readers,
I decided to post a vast link collection of the hottest news from last week around the Fukushima Dai-ichi incident with small annotations.
Thank you, Good reading, keep up the good fight,
yours,
                                           Philippe Schockweiler




Kyodo News 19-3-2012:
Woman collapsing in No-Entry Zone aswell as workers - confirmed deaths.
http://www.47news.jp/CN/201203/CN2012032001001682.html


Manichi News, Kyodo 20-3-2012:
March Tsunami & Earthquake damaged also other nuclear power plants. Tokai NPP leaked 1.5 tons of radioactive water into environment.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120320p2g00m0dm015000c.html


Japan Times, 20-3-2012
Iitate ground highly radioactive - up to 153'000 bq/kg.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120320a3.html


Bloomberg, 18-3-2012
Food (in)security in Japan: 1% of the controls in comparision with Belarus & Chernobyl
... Inadequate testing by the government of rice, milk and fish from the region has prompted consumers to leave them on supermarket shelves and instead select produce from other regions or from overseas. Checks conducted nationwide so far are only 1 percent of what Belarus checked in the past year, a quarter century after the Chernobyl disaster, according to Nobutaka Ishida, a researcher at Norinchukin Research Institute...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-03-19/fukushima-farmers-face-decades-of-tainted-crops-as-fears-linger.html


Bloomberg 18-3-2012
Devastating Impact of Fukushima Disaster on Japanese Farmers: 
... Almost 100,000 farmers lost about 58 billion yen ($694 million) by March 1, or 25 percent of production, according to JA, the country’s biggest agricultural group. Imports of farm products jumped 16 percent to 5.58 trillion yen in 2011, according to the agriculture ministry... 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-03-19/fukushima-farmers-face-decades-of-tainted-crops-as-fears-linger.html


The Yomiuri Shibun, 18-3-2012
Radioactive Plankton found 600km away from Fukushima... The research team collected animal plankton at 17 locations between 30 kilometers and 600 kilometers east of the plant in June last year, about three months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear crisis. Cesium-137 was detected in all of the collected plankton, which in a dry state was found to contain 0.3 to 56.4 becquerels per kilogram. The farther away the plankton was collected, the less radiation it contained, according to the team...
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120317003393.htm


Fukushima Diary, 16-3-2012
Reactortype of Fukushima: Problems known since the 1980's
In the 1980's simulations showed catastrophic results in the GE-Mk1 reactor (the one used in Fukushima) during meltdowns & accidents.
http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/03/corium-may-have-been-penetrated-15-hours-after-meltdown/


Japanese Investigation Committee for the Accident in Fukushima, 15-3-2012Tepco still waits with the final report - only preliminary conclusions published!
http://icanps.go.jp/eng/interim-report.html


Tepco's plant statuts report,  16-3-2012
Note the unusually high hydrogen concentration and temperatures in reactor 3. Aswell as the
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/images/handouts_120316_02-e.pdf


Yomiuri Shibun, 16-3-2012
High Concentration of Caesium in Japanese wildlife! Rabbits contaminated with 560bq/kg above safe limit! 
More and more studies show the devastating effect of the incident on Japanese wild- and naturelife.
http://www.yomidr.yomiuri.co.jp/page.jsp?id=56043


Kyodo News, 15-3-2012
Difficult task to remove spent fuel from reactor.
Chaotic state of the reactor makes it (nearly) impossible to decommission the plant properly.
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/03/147327.html


Dr. Helen Caldicott Interview, 15-3-2012
Nobel Prize Nominee claims: Very early and high number of lumps in thyroid with Fukushima children.
A phenomenon seldomly observed that a nuclear incident causes so many lumps and complications only one year after the catastrophe.
http://greenacreradio.blogspot.de/2012/03/march-15-2012-lessons-from-fukushima-dr.html


ENENEWS, via NHK, 15-3-2012
Radiation too high for workers to continue repairs in suppression chamber of Reactor 2 & 3
http://enenews.com/nhk-radiation-levels-too-high-for-humans-to-continue-at-reactors-no-2-and-3-workers-must-repair-damage-to-suppression-chambers-video


Interview with Prof. Karl Grossmann, 14-3-2012:"Fukushima's toll will be worse"
http://majority.fm/2012/03/13/313-karl-grossman-fallout-from-fukushima/#


Arnold "Arnie" Gunderson via Xinhua 14-3-2012:
"Fukushima as bad or worse then Chernobyl

Chernobyl was a single reactor running at about 7 percent capacity when rupture ... [Fukushima] had three reactors running at 100 percent capacity and seven other reactors with spent fuel pools that were crippled

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2012-03/12/content_14814975.htm

French Nuclear Experts: Risk of Explosion in Fukushima still imminent! 14-3-2012
via France 24:

http://www.france24.com/en/20120306-one-year-later-fukushima-still-threat-radiation-explosion-tepco-residents-corium

The Economic Times: 1-3-2012
Subcontractor workers report of their treatment by Tepco. Tepco denies deaths at plant although they occur!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/fears-for-safety-at-fukushima-one-year-on/articleshow/12093884.cms

25km from Fukushima, Radiation sickness strikes an 18 year old teacher
via Al-Jazzera correspondant in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture

Mysterious highly radioactice powder found all over Fukushima region:


Further reading:
http://enenews.com/massive-amount-of-black-substance-found-on-road-in-minamisoma-after-several-days-of-rain-and-snow-emitting-50-microsvhr-photo

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)

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.