Year: 2014

‘Depleted’ Uranium & Induced Radioactivity: What the Department of Defense hopes you don’t learn

admin

Induced radioactivity would also apply to contamination from Fukushima affecting water (and bodies of water, such as reservoirs), soil, and whatever it comes in contact with (such as roofs, playgrounds, roads, animal feed).

It would also apply to the USS Ronald Reagan that the US Navy has allowed children to board, and which it has redeployed with new crew, regardless of the contamination from Operation Tomodachi and the consequences to the health of US military personnel.

—————————————————————————————————

By Elaine Hunter
Posted on COTO Report
August 18, 2011

120mm DU Munition

Lest anyone jump to the conclusion that this article is about my opinion, let’s start out with the military definition:

“Induced radiation: (DOD, NATO) Radiation produced as a result of exposure to radioactive materials, particularly the capture of neutrons.” (From Military Dictionary:  US Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Words: Terms and concepts associated with the military. Induced-Radiation)

Induced radioactivity occurs when a previously stable material has been made radioactive by exposure to specific radiation (specific being: alpha, gamma, neutrons, x-rays).

The author recalls reading decades ago, in the context of research about the push for fusion power production, that where there is substantial neutron activity, the equipment that initially was not radioactive eventually becomes so radioactive that it must be decommissioned.  To date I’ve seen very little discussion of this aspect of the use of DU.  It is not insignificant.

Neutron activation is the main form of induced radioactivity, which happens when free neutrons are captured by nuclei. A less common form involves removing a neutron via photodisintegration. In this reaction, a high energy photon (gamma ray) strikes a nucleus with an energy greater than the binding energy of the atom, releasing a neutron.

Induced radioactivity was observed early on along the rocky road of nuclear sciences; it was first observed in 1934, by Irene Curie and Frederic Joliot. They bombarded aluminum metal with alpha particles in the following reaction:

The casings, at least for the 30mm DU munitions are aluminum! (“Al” noted in the above equation). The “He” noted in the above equation represents an alpha particle, an alpha particle is essentially a helium atom. The resulting atom is phosphorus (“P”) plus a neutron (“n”). The neutron that results can go on to induce radioactivity in other atoms of aluminum or steel or….

25mm DU munition

The resulting phosphorus atom is radioactive with a half life of approximately 14 days. This is not insignificant. I can’t help but wonder what role induced radioactive phosphorus played in causing the increases in horrid birth defects in Iraq and elsewhere. Phosphorus is an essential element in DNA, RNA, amino acids, etc., the building blocks of life.

Surely those concerned about DU munitions have learned that U-238 is an alpha emitter. It is also a neutron emitter (my article DU – You Don’t Have To Inhale Or Ingest It For It To Make You Sick gives details about this).

The A-10 Thunderbolt jet and the Apache helicopter both use 30mm munitions in their GAU Gatling gun (front mounted).

Bradley Fighting Vehicle

However what was in their linked ammo is not 100% DU rounds. The linkage was 4 DUs to 1 HEI (High Explosive Incendiary) round (Note I’ve also seen 5/1 ratio). Has anyone else noted that those HEIs and their casings had to have become radioactive? How about the region of the jets or helicopters where the ammo was loaded? Wouldn’t they also become radioactive?

From where I sit, it is too difficult to come up with a listing of what artificial radioisotopes would have been induced or what half lives they would have, but they have to be there.

While in stockpile or not yet loaded for action, the DU munitions are stored in now radioactive steel ammo cans. Troops who sat on such cans would have been cooking their behinds and “family jewels” with various radioactive emissions to their peril.

Some years ago the Navy stopped using the 20mm DU round. Was it because it was gradually making their ships radioactive; because sailors were getting sick? You’ll have to ask the higher-ups on that one. They said it was because they did not need them.

Marine Harrier Jet

How about DU armor on tanks? Did the manufacturer or the DOD give some special blessing over it to prevent the inevitable induced radioactivity it would cause to the rest of the tank and the crew?

These are not the only examples of where DU occurs. Fill in others that you know and think about it.

More and more examples of information for the horses’ mouths that show the US military has failed to consider or reveal the far reaching ramifications of using “depleted” uranium ostensibly on the enemy, yet on its own who have to have anything to do with it. Always, always more questions than answers. Obfuscation, betrayal.

Dr. Prof. Elaine Hunter is an Independent Researcher. Feel free to contact her at: uncommon.eyes at gmail.com. A late-comer to the concerns about DU munitions, was shocked when she learned she lived in the midst of the US DU “production” triangle. She grew up a pre-boomer WWII military brat.

Source:
http://coto2.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/%e2%80%98depleted%e2%80%99-uranium-induced-radioactivity-what-dod-hopes-you-don%e2%80%99t-learn/

Sign the petition to Tokyo: “Resign as host of 2020 Olympics”

admin

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/352/112/859/radioactive-tokyo-resign-as-host-of-2020-olympics/

This petition was created by Carol Wolman MD who also wrote this editorial

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Brave-Japanese-Doctors-by-carol-wolman-MD-Fukushima-140731-861.html

Please forward this information.

Petition:

We, the undersigned, join Ambassador Mitsuhei Murata in calling for “an honorable retreat” for Japan, resigning the position of Host for the 2020 Olympic Games. Since Fukushima is already contaminating Tokyo, says Mr. Murata, bringing people there in large numbers for the games (and the workers building the facilities before that event) is immoral and unethical.

Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi, the nuclear reactor complex that was damaged by the earthquake/tsunami of March 2011, continues to spew forth radioactivity today.  Unfortunately, the site is nowhere near “under control”, and there is no guarantee it will be by 2020. Periodic releases of radioactive material into the air spread all over northern Japan, including Tokyo.  The radiation level in Tokyo has gone from 0.036 microseverts/hour to 13 microseverts/hour, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The Olympic practice field is only 20 kilometers from the reactor complex.  JP gov is even considering  programing 2020 Olympic-torch relay races near Fukushima plant “to fight harmful rumor.”

If the 2020 summer games are held in Tokyo, the world’s finest young athletes will be exposed to radiation, along with the workers building the complex and the people from all over the world who attend.

We also must not forget that the country is facing the unprecedented nuclear crisis that continues to spread across its land and ocean, and even across national borders. There still is no provisions for a safe work environment at Fukushima Complex. The evacuated people still haven’t secured safe and healthy living environments, nor are they financially stable. Instead of spending resources on the Olympic Games, Japan should prioritize to restore the affected people’s livelihood as well as prevent further radioactive contamination.

 

All Tokyo districts are contaminated with radiation from Fukushima; doctor moves practice out of Tokyo to help patients

admin

Tokyo Contaminated & Not Fit for Habitation, Doctor Says

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Tokyo_contaminated_and_not_fit_for_habitation.php

All 23 districts of Tokyo contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima meltdown, worse than at Chernobyl after the accident, and blood cells of children under ten are showing worrying changes; the WHO, the IAEA & the Japanese government cannot be trusted
Susie Greaves

In July 2014 Dr Shigeru Mita wrote a letter to his fellow doctors to explain his decision to move his practice from Tokyo to Okayama city in the West of Japan [1]. In it, he appeals to their sense of duty to answer the anxieties of parents in Japan who do not believe the information coming from the authorities. He says “I must state that the policies of the WHO, the IAEA or the Japanese government cannot be trusted.” and “if the power to save our citizens and future generations exists somewhere, it does not lie within the government or any academic association, but in the hands of individual clinical doctors ourselves.”

Mita claims that all 23 districts of Tokyo are contaminated, with the eastern area worst affected – up to 4 000 Bq/kg. (The becquerel is a unit of radioactivity. One Bq is the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second.) These findings confirm what the nuclear physicist Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Nuclear Education found in 2012, when he picked up five random soil samples in Tokyo from between paving stones, in parks and playgrounds. The levels of contamination were up to 7 000 Bq/kg; in the US, anything registering these levels would be considered nuclear waste [2].

While practising in Tokyo, Mita also discovered changes in the white blood cells of children under 10.

Independent science & independent reporting in Japan outlawed

In December 2013, the Japanese parliament passed a bill whereby public officials and private citizens could face ten years in prison for divulging “special state secrets”, and journalists, five years, for seeking to obtain classified information. The bill is widely interpreted as a way of preventing sensitive information about Fukushima (among other topics) reaching the Japanese public and by extension the rest of the world [3].

The independent organisation Reporters without Borders has downgraded Japan in its world press freedom index from 22nd place in 2012, to 53rd in 2013 and to 59th in 2014, following the passing of the state secrets bill. Reporters without Borders say that Japan“has been affected by a lack of transparency and almost zero respect for access to information on subjects directly or indirectly related to Fukushima” [4].

Nuclear lobby put in charge

Back in December 2012, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) whose mission is to promote the peaceful uses of the atom, signed agreements with Fukushima Prefecture, Fukushima Medical University and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. These “Practical Arrangements” have in effect, handed over the management of the post-accident situation at Fukushima and its health consequences to the nuclear lobby. Among other clauses regarding cooperation and funding, we read that “The Parties will ensure the confidentiality of information classified by the other Party as restricted or confidential” [5].

But this should come as no surprise. Anyone who doubts the heavy hand of the nuclear lobby in the “management” (i.e. minimisation) of nuclear accidents should read the account by the physicist Bella Belbéoch entitled “Western responsibility regarding the health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe in Belarus, the Ukraine and Russia” [6]. The initial Soviet cover up of the accident is well known. Less well known are the “stages of submission” in which the IAEA forced the Soviets to accede to their demands to minimise estimates of the health effects of the accident. In a series of manipulations and bullying tactics, they forced the Soviet officials to divide their estimates of the health effects by a factor of 10. One Soviet delegate, Legassov, committed suicide, a few days after he capitulated to the IAEA demands, on the 26th April 1988, the second anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.

A travesty of reporting on risks and cancers

How has the nuclear lobby reacted to Fukushima?  A preliminary assessment published in 2012 by the World Health Organisation (but actually emanating from the IAEA) managed to draw optimistic conclusions, while ignoring two critical groups, the workers at the TEPCO plant, and the people who were evacuated from the immediate area (See [7]  WHO Report on Fukushima a Travesty  SiS 55).   Then in 2013, the UNSCEAR report [8] described the risks of people developing thyroid cancer, leukaemia and breast cancer as barely discernible, even though the rates of childhood thyroid cancer in Fukushima prefecture are already 40 times what would be expected [9]. The UNSCEAR report has been criticised by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War because it consistently underestimates the radiation dose received, underestimates internal radiation, ignores the vulnerability of the human embryo to radiation, ignores hereditary effects, ignores the unreliability of the dose received by workers at the stricken plant, and only considers some cancers as potential health effects, whereas the experience of Chernobyl shows that every vital organ and system of the body is affected [10].

Raising the ‘safe’ limit of radiation

The Japanese people are faced with a government whose response to the dangers of the radiation was to increase the acceptable limit from 1 mSv/year to 20 mSv/year and who are now encouraging people to move back into areas that had previously been evacuated. (The millisievert is a unit of radiation dose. Before the Fukushima accident, Japan, like the rest of the world, respected the limit of 1 mSv/year recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).) Meanwhile, the nuclear lobby wants to see the resumption of nuclear power in Japan as quickly as possible. This is not an atmosphere in which doctors are encouraged to report health effects that could be the result of radiation, and certainly not in Tokyo, whose residents have been led to believe that they have nothing to fear.

Changes in white blood cells in children

Mita began work as a general practitioner in Tokyo in the 1990s. In the letter to his colleagues explaining his decision to move his practice from Tokyo to Okayama City, he claims that contamination in the eastern part of Tokyo is 1000-4000 Bq/kg and in the western part, 300-1000Bq/kg. He compares these levels with Kiev, in Ukraine, after the accident at Chernobyl, of 500 Bq/kg, and with measurements taken before the 2011 Fukushima accident at Shinjuku, the site of the Tokyo municipal government of 0.5 – 1.5 Bq/kg. He says that “Tokyo should no longer be inhabited, and that those who insist on living in Tokyo must take regular breaks in safer areas”.

Mita conducts thyroid ultrasound tests for parents who are concerned about the health of their children but he is now concerned about the results of another test on children under 10, the differential white blood cell count. This test is undergone routinely by workers in the nuclear industry who are exposed to radiation. Blood is produced in bone marrow, which is one of the organs most vulnerable to radiation. The white blood cells consist of five different kinds of cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, eosinocytes, basophils and monocytes, and it is the relative numbers of these five cell types that is examined. Mita has found a decline in neutrophils in children under 10, in areas that are not considered to be highly contaminated or even contaminated at all. His patients come from Northern Kanto, the area around Tokyo and including Tokyo itself [11].

“The pediatricians’ general textbook says that the reference value of neutrophils for healthy children (6-12 years old) is between 3000 and 5000. 3000 is considered as the threshold value.” Mita says. “But the mean value of neutrophils of the children who have visited our clinics since the accident has decreased to 2500. … It is lower than the threshold value of 3000. I think this points at a serious problem.”

Mita explains that although the decrease in neutrophil does not directly cause lowered immunity, it is “the last bastion of the immunity system” and could play a role in fatal illnesses such as septicaemia in the case of aggressive colds. “In the summer of 2011, there were many children with bloodshot eyes; and what we saw most were children with dark circles under the eyes. We also had increased occurrence of sinusitis. Previously, these patients got better soon after they were given proper treatment; however, we are seeing more cases of sinusitis accompanied with mild case of asthma continuing for longer periods. And when these children spend some time in the West, they get better.If at all possible, I would like them to move away from East Japan.”

In adults, he has found increased nosebleeds, hair loss, lack of energy, subcutaneous bleeding, visible urinary haemorrhage, skin inflammation, and coughs. He has found an increase in infectious diseases such as influenza, hand, foot and mouth diseases and shingles. “We also see more patients with diseases that had been rare before; for example, polymyalgia rheumatica is a disease common among those above age 50 and contracted by 1.7 people out of every 100,000. Before 3.11, [the date of the accident at Fukushima] we had one or less patient per year. Now, we treat more than 10 patients at the same time.” Dr Mita wonders “Could these be the same symptoms of muscle rheumatism that were recorded in Chernobyl?”

Finally, Mita says that the radioactive contamination of Tokyo is increasing because of the Japanese government’s policy of transporting radioactive waste from the Fukushima zone all over Japan for incineration or burial. The Japanese government and the nuclear authorities claimed that filters on the stacks of the incineration plants would remove most of the radioactivity, but this is not the case, and in the opinion of many, it is adding to the contamination. Arnie Gundersen, for instance says, “They are creating 100 to 1000 times more radioactive material by burning debris than keeping it in concentrated form” [12].

To conclude

Mita is talking about his perceptions of the changes in health of a population living in an area that is not considered contaminated. It will be all too easy to dismiss his findings. He himself is not optimistic. He acknowledges that to prove any of his suspicions would require teams of doctors, and expensive research projects to compare groups of people, their radioactive contamination and the illnesses from which they suffer. That’s something simply beyond the reach of any single physician. In other words, “it’s impossible under the present state to collect the kind of data that would be printed in a prestigious science magazine. Still, as long as I know that something strange is clearly happening, I can’t just sit here doing nothing.”

And here is Professor Yablokov talking about the difficulties that doctors and scientists experienced in the Chernobyl territories, to prove a correlation between radiation and illness [13]: “The demand by IAEA and WHO experts to require “significant correlation” between the imprecisely calculated levels of individual radiation […] and precisely diagnosed illnesses […] is not, in our view, scientifically valid. […]We believe it is scientifically incorrect to reject data generated by many thousands of scientists, doctors and other experts who directly observed the suffering of millions affected by radioactive fallout in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, as “mismatching scientific protocols.” It is scientifically valid to find ways to abstract the valuable information from these data.” Yablokov goes on to list the ways in which this could be done.

But it was not done in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, and, in this way, the true health consequences of the Chernobyl accident remain hidden. The 2 million people, including 500,000 children still living in the worst contaminated areas around Chernobyl suffer a myriad of illnesses. (According to the Ministry of Health and Sciences in Belarus in 2000, 85% of the children in the contaminated areas were ill, whereas that figure was 15% before the accident in 1986 [14].)

Mita has made a brave decision. The pressure on health professionals and other citizens in Japan to remain silent about the health consequences of Fukushima, will lead to a health catastrophe there – not now, but in the decades to come.

For more on Fukushima and Chernobyl see [15] Truth about Fukushima and other articles in the series (SiS 55) and [16] Fukushima Crisis Goes Global (SiS 61).

References

  1. World Network for Saving Children from Radiation (2014). A Tokyo doctor who has moved to western Japan urges fellow doctors to promote radiation protection: A message from Dr Mita to his colleagues in Kodaira, Tokyo. Accessed 25 August 2014, http://www.save-children-from-radiation.org/2014/07/16/a-tokyo-doctor-who-has-moved-to-western-japan-urges-fellow-doctors-to-promote-radiation-protection-a-message-from-dr-mita-to-his-colleagues-in-kodaira-city-t/
  2. ENENews (2012). Gunderson: Tokyo soil so hot it should be sent to nuclear waste dump – Really severe releases hit city. Accessed 25 August 2014,  http://enenews.com/gundersen-tokyo-soil-hot-be-shipped-radioactive-dump).
  3. “Japan whistleblowers face crackdown under proposed state secrets law.” Justin McMurray, Guardian, 5 December 2013. Accessed 25 August 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/05/whistleblowers-japan-crackdown-state-secrets
  4. Reporters without Borders (2013). Press freedom index 2013: Dashed hopes after spring. Accessed 25 August 2014,  http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html
  5. Practical Arrangements between Fukushima Medical University and the International Atomic Energy Agency on Cooperation in the Area of Human Health. Accessed 25 August 2014, http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/energy/fukushima_2012/pdfs/fukushima_iaea_en_06.pdf
  6. Belbéoch B. Responsabilités occidentales dans les conséquences sanitaires de la catastrophe de Tchernobyl, en Bélorussie, Ukraine et Russie. In Radioprotection et Droit nucléaire (eds. I Rens, J Jakubec, E George). Collection SEBES, 1998. English translation: Western responsibility regarding the health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe in Belarus, the Ukraine and Russia. http://www.dissident-media.org/infonucleaire/western_responsability.html 25/8/14
  7. Greaves S.  WHO report on Fukushima a travesty. Science in Society 55 2012, 38-39.
  8. United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation. Sources, Effects and Risks of Ionizing Radiation. United Nations, New York, 2014. Accessed 25 August 2014, http://www.unscear.org/docs/reports/2013/13-85418_Report_2013_Annex_A.pdf
  9. Wasserman H. Fukushima, the continuing catastrophe.  The Ecologist, June 2014.http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2433355/fukushima_the_continuing_catastrophe.html
  10. Physicians for Social Responsibility USA et al. Critical Analysis of the UNSCEAR Report “Levels and effects of radiation exposure due to the nuclear accident after the 2011 Great East-Japan Earthquake and tsunami.” International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Berlin, 2014. Accessed 25 August 2014, http://ippnw-students.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/UNSCEAR-Critique.pdf
  11. World Network for Saving Children from Radiation. Dr Shigeru Mita addresses the need of blood examination among children in the Kanto area. 2013. Accessed 25 August 2014, http://www.save-children-from-radiation.org/2013/11/11/title-dr-shigeru-mita-addresses-the-need-of-blood-examination-among-children-in-the-kanto-area/
  12. “Radioactive rubble reaction to haven in Japan.” Arnie Gundersen, Youtube.  Accessed 25 August 2014,   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIr-QcsjKxE)
  13. Yablokov AV, Nesterenko VB and Nesterenko AV. Consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe for public health and the environment 23 years later. Proceedings of the New York Academy of Sciences 1181, 2009, 318-326.
  14. UN Human Rights Council. Seventh session. Point 3. A/HRC/7/NGO/33 22 February 2008.
  15. Ho MW. Truth about Fukushima. Science in Society 55 2012,18-23.
  16. Ho MW. Fukushima crisis goes global. Science in Society 61 2014, 4-9.

Take Action Now on Fukushima and Nuclear Radiation Hazards!

admin

To become informed on the history of the March 2011 Fukushima disaster and spreading radiation, go to the archives of  ENE News at 
https://web.archive.org/web/20181019142635/http://enenews.com/

See this timeline of wildlife and ocean impacts through 2015. 

This situation continues to be an emergency, with increasing radioactive contamination of air, sea, water sources, and land. A news media blackout prevents vital news updates. Many actions are needed to alert the public to this active situation and solve the growing radiation which is harming all life worldwide.

Nuclear energy and nuclear power plants put the health and future of the planet at risk every day.

Get informed!

Get the word out!

Take action!

October medical conference includes presentation on nuclear reactor releases and harm to human health

admin , , ,

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine holds the medical conference

“Integrative Solutions for 21st Century Medicine”

October 23-26, 2014

in Albuquerque, New Mexico

http://www.aaemconference.com/

On October 23, Joseph Mangano will present “Nuclear Reactor Releases and Harm to Human Health ”. The workshop is part of an all-day workshop on “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity as an Emerging Illness”,  designed for primary care providers, “including physicians, nurses and physicians assistants who manage complex patients.”

http://aaemconference.com/workshop1.html http://aaemconference.com/workshop1schedule.html

 October 23 EHS Workshop Schedule —

8:00 am The Treatment of EMF Radiation William J. Rea, M.D.
8:30 am Electromagnetic hypersensitivity: Fact or fiction?  Stephen Genuis, M.D., FAAEM, DIBEM
9:15 am Nuclear Reactor Releases and Harm to Human Health  Joseph Mangano, MPH
10:00 am Break
10:30 am EMFs Act Via Activation of Voltage-gated Calcium Channels: Antioxidant, Anti-inflammatory, Detoxification, Pro-Mitochondrial and Other Cytoprotective Effects Martin Pall, Ph.D.
11:15 am 21st Century Pollution — EMF Radiation’s Health Impact: Endocrine System Effects  Elizabeth Plourde, Ph.D.
12:00 pm Luncheon Presentation Loss of Expression of the Enzymes of Glutathione Production Tim Guilford, M.D.
1:00 pm Shielding of Electromagnetic Frequency in Homes  Steen Hviid, Engineer
1:45 pm 21st Century Pollution — EMF Radiation’s Health Impact: Psychological and Neurological Effects  Elizabeth Plourde, Ph.D.
2:15 pm Autism and EMF? Plausibility of Pathophysiological Link Martha Herbert, M.D.
3:15 pm Break
4:00 pm Sulfate, Electricity and the Vasculature  Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D.
5:00 pm Expert Panel
6:00 pm Adjourn

The main conference schedule, covering many topics, is here http://www.aaemconference.com/program.html

Information on other workshops on October 23 is here:

Up to 26.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits can be earned at this conference.

The number of Americans with Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCCs) is rising (more than one in four). This problem is increasingly being addressed in Public Health forums, by the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Center for Disease Control. Clusters of diseases are occurring in the same individual and have been associated with various etiologies. The range of body systems affected is broad: immune, central nervous system, respiratory, endocrine, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal. These clusters of diseases have synergistic interactions.

This CME conference will explore the toxins, triggers and potential solutions for many of these Multiple Chronic Conditions. The etiologies are myriad: environmental influences include air; water; food and food additives; food preparation methods; ingestant chemicals; aerosolized toxins and toxicants; contact materials; electromagnetic force overload – in short, 21st century exposures affect the genome, epigenome, celluar and extracellular structures that produce the phenotype(s) of diseases we commonly see in practice. Physicians must become familiar with the complex mechanisms behind these problems, as well as how to accurately diagnose and effectively treat them.

ACCREDITATION: The American Academy of Environmental Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

US circumvented laws to help Japan accumulate tons of plutonium

admin

Waste and mox shipments from Europe

From National Security News Service

By Joseph Trento, April 9th, 2012

The United States deliberately allowed Japan access to the United States’ most secret nuclear weapons facilities while it transferred tens of billions of dollars worth of American tax paid research that has allowed Japan to amass 70 tons of weapons grade plutonium since the 1980s, a National Security News Service investigation reveals. These activities repeatedly violated U.S. laws regarding controls of sensitive nuclear materials that could be diverted to weapons programs in Japan. The NSNS investigation found that the United States has known about a secret nuclear weapons program in Japan since the 1960s, according to CIA reports.

The diversion of U.S. classified technology began during the Reagan administration after it allowed a $10 billion reactor sale to China. Japan protested that sensitive technology was being sold to a potential nuclear adversary. The Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations permitted sensitive technology and nuclear materials to be transferred to Japan despite laws and treaties preventing such transfers. Highly sensitive technology on plutonium separation from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site and Hanford nuclear weapons complex, as well as tens of billions of dollars worth of breeder reactor research was turned over to Japan with almost no safeguards against proliferation. Japanese scientist and technicians were given access to both Hanford and Savannah River as part of the transfer process.

While Japan has refrained from deploying nuclear weapons and remains under an umbrella of U.S. nuclear protection, NSNS has learned that the country has used its electrical utility companies as a cover to allow the country to amass enough nuclear weapons materials to build a nuclear arsenal larger than China, India and Pakistan combined.

This deliberate proliferation by the United States fuels arguments by countries like Iran that the original nuclear powers engage in proliferation despite treaty and internal legal obligations. Russia, France, Great Britain as well as the United States created civilian nuclear power industries around the world from their weapons complexes that amount to government-owned or subsidized industries. Israel, like Japan, has been a major beneficiary and, like Japan, has had nuclear weapons capabilities since the 1960s.

A year ago a natural disaster combined with a man-made tragedy decimated Northern Japan and came close to making Tokyo, a city of 30 million people, uninhabitable. Nuclear tragedies plague Japan’s modern history. It is the only nation in the world attacked with nuclear weapons. In March 2011, after a tsunami swept on shore, hydrogen explosions and the subsequent meltdowns of three reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant spewed radiation across the region. Like the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan will face the aftermath for generations. A twelve-mile area around the site is considered uninhabitable. It is a national sacrifice zone.

How Japan ended up in this nuclear nightmare is a subject the National Security News Service has been investigating since 1991. We learned that Japan had a dual use nuclear program. The public program was to develop and provide unlimited energy for the country. But there was also a secret component, an undeclared nuclear weapons program that would allow Japan to amass enough nuclear material and technology to become a major nuclear power on short notice.

That secret effort was hidden in a nuclear power program that by March 11, 2011– the day the earthquake and tsunami overwhelmed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant – had amassed 70 metric tons of plutonium. Like its use of civilian nuclear power to hide a secret bomb program, Japan used peaceful space exploration as a cover for developing sophisticated nuclear weapons delivery systems.

For the rest of the article and related photos:

http://www.dcbureau.org/201204097128/national-security-news-service/united-states-circumvented-laws-to-help-japan-accumulate-tons-of-plutonium.html

 

Meeting, October 1 — “Will Santa Susanna Field Laboratory ever be cleaned up?”

admin

NEXT SSFL WORK GROUP MEETING 

Wednesday, October 1, 6:30 PM

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center
3050 E. Los Angeles Avenue
Simi Valley, CA 93065

Join us on October 1 for a candid discussion about the contamination and cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The meeting will include presentations on:

The 1959 Meltdown – What Really Happened? 
John Pace, a former Atomics International employee, will relay his first-person experiences during the partial nuclear meltdown of the Sodium Reactor Experiment. Pace will reveal information about what happened during the reactor accident that occurred at SSFL over a two-week period in 1959. A panel of former workers and community members will add their experiences and insights, and discuss why this event matters today. A review of the nuclear and chemical contaminants at SSFL and their potential impact on health will be also be presented.

Will SSFL Ever Be Cleaned Up?
 Troubling developments suggest the SSFL cleanup agreements will not be carried out and the vast majority of contamination will remain on site. Many community members believe that the Boeing Company and government agencies responsible for overseeing the cleanup are intentionally subverting the agreements already made to clean up SSFL. A panel of community members and advocates will discuss recent events and what can be done to ensure full cleanup.

Please also visit the SSFL Work Group website, www.ssflworkgroup.org, where we have posted reports on past meetings with presentations and video as well as other useful information about the contamination at the site and status of cleanup.

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), also known as Rocketdyne, is a former nuclear and rocket engine testing facility that is contaminated with radiological and chemical pollutants. The 2,850 acre site is near Simi Valley, Chatsworth, Canoga Park, Woodland Hills, West Hills, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Oak Park, Calabasas, and Thousand Oaks. For over twenty years, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Work Group has served to keep the community informed about the contamination at SSFL and assure it is thoroughly cleaned up.

To learn more visit www.ssflworkgroup.org or contact us at info@ssflworkgroup.org. 

SSFL Work Group · 1409 Kuehner Drive, #3 · Simi Valley, CA 93063 · USA

US Nuclear Regulatory Commission expert says Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant should be shut down

admin , , , , , , , ,

In an internal report that was released August 25, NRC senior federal nuclear expert Michael Peck called for Pacific Gas and Electric’s Diablo Canyon NPP to be shut down pending a safety review. At issue is the recently discovered Shoreline Fault. However, the other three faults, including the Hosgri Fault, reportedly responsible for a devastating earthquake in Santa Barbara in the 1900’s, are also issues.

Here is a petition by Friends of the Earth to shut down Diablo Canyon:
http://action.foe.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=16332

Last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists released a report on Diablo Canyon. They found the NRC was not holding Diablo Canyon to the same earthquake safety standards as other nuclear power plants.

“This is a dangerous double standard,” said David Lochbaum, director of UCS’s Nuclear Safety Project and author of the report. “At other facilities, the NRC enforced its safety regulations and protected Americans from earthquake threats. Today, in the case of Diablo Canyon, the NRC is ignoring its regulations, unfairly exposing millions of Americans to undue risk.”

When similar concerns surfaced at nuclear facilities in California, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the NRC did not allow the plants to continue to operate until the agency determined they met safety regulations…In contrast, the NRC has allowed PG&E to continue to operate Diablo Canyon’s reactors despite this known threat.
http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/diablo-canyon-report-0381.html
NRC Fails to Apply Standard Earthquake Protection Protocols to Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant, Report Finds

Peck first raised his concerns in September 2010 when he filed non-concurrence papers and later elevated them to differing professional opinion, the highest level of official dissent within the agency. His report said that pipes and other important plant equipment at the plant may not be able to withstand the maximum shaking that could be generated by the Shoreline fault, which runs 2,000 feet offshore of the plant.

“We find it completely disgraceful that the NRC hid these concerns for all these years,” said Jane Swanson, spokeswoman for the antinuclear group San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace.

Peck recommended that Diablo Canyon be shut down until it can be proved that the plant could withstand a quake along the Shoreline fault, a process that could require an amendment to the plant’s current operating license.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/08/25/3211883_report-diablo-canyon-closure-nrc.html?rh=1
Report calling for Diablo Canyon’s closure raises concerns locally, August 25, 2014

According to Peck’s filing, PG&E research in 2011 determined that any of three nearby faults – the Shoreline, Los Osos and San Luis Bay – is capable of producing significantly more ground motion during an earthquake than was accounted for in the design of important plant equipment. In the case of San Luis Bay, it is as much as 75 percent more.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/ap-exclusive-expert-calls-diablo-canyon-shutdown/ng8Tj/
AP Exclusive: Expert calls for Diablo Canyon shutdown, Aug. 25, 2014

On August 26, Friends of the Earth filed a formal petition with the NRC:

Friends of the Earth — an advocacy group critical of the nuclear power industry — filed a petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission asking for a hearing and charging the Diablo Canyon plant is violating its operating license.

… The group argues the reactors located between Los Angeles and San Francisco should remain closed until a rigorous safety review is completed and PG&E amends its federal license.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/08/26/3213001/group-files-petition-to-idle-california.html#storylink=relast
Group files petition to idle Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, August 26,, 2014

Here is the AP exclusive on the Diablo Canyon report, and other news articles.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/ap-exclusive-expert-calls-diablo-canyon-shutdown/ng8Tj/
AP Exclusive: Expert calls for Diablo Canyon shutdown, Aug. 25, 2014

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/08/25/3211883_report-diablo-canyon-closure-nrc.html?rh=1
Report calling for Diablo Canyon’s closure raises concerns locally, August 25, 2014

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2014/08/26/3213001/group-files-petition-to-idle-california.html#storylink=relast
Group files petition to idle Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, August 26,, 2014

http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/diablo-canyon-report-0381.html
NRC Fails to Apply Standard Earthquake Protection Protocols to Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant, Report Finds, November 13, 2013

Ukraine nuclear reactors at great risk; is a 15X meltdown possible? Update

admin

Source: Energoatom

Update, November 12, 2014:

A company in South Africa is now refusing to send more coal to Ukraine. A shipment of 500,000 tons of coal was delivered to Ukraine already, but 1 million tons was ordered. Ukraine is now attempting to find another company to supply coal, but so far, there has been no deal.

Source:http://www.uacrisis.com/sar-refuses-to-deliver-more-coal-to-ukraine/

Update, September 7, 2014:

The Kiev regime is buying 1 million tons of coal from South Africa due to the coal shortage in Ukraine. Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said on September 3 that the first ship was being loaded. [1]

——————————————————————————————————

August 21, 2014

Coal fuels 40% of the Ukrainian power grid. There are 15 nuclear reactors in the country.

Many coal miners left their jobs to defend their towns against the attacks of the neo-Nazi regime currently controlling Kiev. Coal production has fallen drastically. This article from Zero Hedge states Ukraine will potentially run out of coal in three weeks.

What will happen then? Many supply routes have been destroyed. What will happen if there are brownouts or blackouts, and generators do not function correctly?

Fifteen reactors in Ukraine. This is a frightening situation.

August 19, 2014

Ukraine’s next crisis will be a devastatingly economic one, as violent conflict destroys critical infrastructure in the east and brings key industry to a halt, furthering weakening the energy sector by crippling coal-based electricity production.

The Ukrainian military’s showdown with separatists in the industrial east has forced coal mines to severely cut production or close down entirely. This has led to an electricity crisis that can only be staunched by cutting domestic production along with exports to Europe, Crimea, and Belarus — or worse, getting more imports from Russia.

In the coal centers of Ukraine’s industrial east—Luhansk and Donetsk—fighting has forced the full closure of an estimated 50 percent of coal mines, while overall coal production has fallen 22 percent over the same period last year.

Key industry sources say they will potentially run out of coal in less than three weeks.

For Ukraine, the second largest producer of coal in Europe, this will have a devastating impact on the energy sector, which is in a state of emergency, unable to get coal to thermal power plants that provide some 40 percent of the entire country’s electricity.

In the wider energy picture, the halt of coal production sets Ukraine back a decade. The plan was to rely more on coal in order to reduce dependence on Russian natural gas.

But the new reality has insiders wondering how Ukraine will produce more of its own natural gas, after the implementation earlier this month of an amended tax code that targets private gas producers with a tax so high that they will significantly reduce production through the end of the year and beyond that is anyone’s guess. (Full disclosure: my firm, Pelicourt LLC, is the majority shareholder of Ukraine’s third-largest gas producer, Cub Energy, and I have advised the U.S. and Canadian governments on the potential harm the new tax will cause.)

Economically, the conflict in the east is a disaster for Ukraine, which has traditionally been a net exporter of thermal coal for power generation. Now it will have to increase imports of fuel to make up for the loss. But even then, the destruction of supply routes makes this challenging.

Not only have coal supply routes been destroyed in the conflict, but other critical infrastructure has taken a hit as well, threatening other industries.

For the complete article and comments:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-19/ukraine%E2%80%99s-next-crisis-economic-disaster
Ukraine’s Next Crisis? Economic Disaster
Used under Fair Use Rules.

————————————————————————————

[1] http://www.bdlive.co.za/world/europe/2014/09/03/ukraine-to-buy-1-million-tonnes-of-coal-from-sa
Ukraine to buy 1-million tonnes of coal from SA

Note: there is a great deal of false information in this story. It is hopeful that the coal shipment is true and will get to Ukraine in time.

Fukushima exports rice to Singapore. Who will warn the people of Singapore?

admin

Posted on ENE News

Fukushima Farmers Negotiate with Japanese Government,
Published August 31, 2013 –
Farmer from Sukagawa, 60 km west of Fukushima Daiichi (at 1:45 in):
Do you understand the meaning of ‘de’ in the word decontamination? We are just tilling deeply and spreading the radiation thinly. We are not removing the contamination. No wonder that the radiation level has not gone down. We measured the radioactivity in the air.  It has not gone down at all. We have not removed the contaminated soil. Of course not! The environment has not changed at all 2 years after the explosions. […] In Fukushima, all farm produce must be checked for the cesium level prior to shipping. The current government limit is 100 becquerels. The farmers know how many becquerels of cesium their produce contains. We can ship them if the reading is lower than 100. But I would not dare eat them myself. The consumers assume there is no radiation in the food they buy.  […] We farmers know better. We feel guilty about growing it and selling it. We won’t eat it ourselves, but we sell it. 

Watch the emotional speeches from the Fukushima farmers here  [1]

Then this very alarming report from Japan Times —

Aug 19, 2014

Exports of Fukushima-grown rice have resumed after being suspended by the nuclear crisis in March 2011 amid soaring concerns about radiation contamination, a national agricultural cooperative said Monday.

Soaring concerns? Soaring radiation counts that keep going up. Scientists and medical professionals are very worried about the effects.

A shipment of 300 kg of Koshihikari brand rice produced in Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture, has arrived in Singapore to be sold at a supermarket Friday after clearing customs, according to the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations.

Fukushima Prefecture was a major producer of rice and had exported some 100 tons to Hong Kong and similar areas before the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami triggered the nuclear disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant.

No rice produced in Fukushima was ever exported after the core meltdowns, the cooperative said.

This year’s exports of agricultural and marine products were valued at ¥284 billion from January to June, up 10.3 percent from a year ago, buoyed by growing popularity of Japanese cuisine. But exports from Fukushima have stayed sluggish amid persistent concern about radioactive contamination from the meltdown-stricken Fukushima No. 1 complex, which was recently linked to rice contamination elsewhere in the prefecture reportedly caused by cleanup efforts at the plant that kicked radiation-tainted dust into the air.

This is a lie. The radioactive releases contaminating air and water are ongoing and increasing. Strontium started spiking upward last year. Large areas of Japan are contaminated. The area around the power plants is highly contaminated.

A number of countries and regions still impose restrictions on farm products from the prefecture. Singapore had banned imports of some foods from Fukushima but lifted it in May.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/08/19/business/first-export-fukushima-rice-since-nuclear-crisis-started-2011-reaches-singapore/#.U_Zr1vldXDU

Reprinted under Fair Use Rules due to the emergency.

 

[1]

http://enenews.com/rice-grown-near-fukushima-plant-cleared-for-sale-farmer-i-would-not-dare-eat-it-myself-we-farmers-know-better-we-feel-guilt-about-growing-it-and-selling-it-video
Rice grown nearby Fukushima plant cleared for sale — Farmer: “I would not dare eat it… We feel guilty about growing it and selling it” (VIDEO), October 11, 2013