Israel preparing to strike Iranian nuclear sites – media Events in Syria have created a window of opportunity, sources have told Times of Israel December 12, 2024
The Israeli Air Force is carrying out preparations for “potential strikes” on Iranian nuclear facilities, military officials have told Times of Israel.
West Jerusalem believes that the surprise takeover of Syria by jihadist rebels has weakened Tehran’s position in the region, which could prompt Iran to speed up its atomic program, the outlet said.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes have taken out most of Syrian air defenses, clearing the way for an operation against Iran.
Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful and civilian in nature, contrary to allegations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran has sought an atomic bomb. In 2015, the world’s top five nuclear powers struck a deal with Iran to monitor its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief, but the US unilaterally withdrew from this agreement in 2018.
Israel reportedly considered strikes on Iranian nuclear sites after Tehran’s October 1 missile barrage, but did not follow through on those plans.
Netanyahu’s government has used the recent events in Syria to destroy its neighbor’s military capabilities, launching “one of the largest attack operations in the history” of its air force. Earlier this week, Israeli jets struck over 250 targets around Syria, including airports and seaports, air defense and missile sites, military industry facilities and warehouses. Israeli troops also moved beyond the buffer zone on the Golan Heights, claiming Mount Hermon.
Bashar Assad’s government in Syria was overthrown by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants last week. The jihadist group has not yet consolidated power.
Israel reportedly believes that Iran is “isolated” after the ousting of Assad and that its other main ally in the region, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, has been significantly weakened by the recent IDF offensive there. This could push Iran to speed up its nuclear program and could also create a window of opportunity for an Israeli pre-emptive strike, according to Times of Israel.
President Biden has put the world at the brink of nuclear war by allowing American long-range ATACMS missiles to be fired into Russia from Ukraine, using American personnel, American satellites, American targeting, and American intelligence.
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter has talked with Russian officials. They view this as a direct U.S. attack on Russia, putting the U.S. in a state of war with Russia and triggering Russia’s nuclear doctrine.
Call members of Congress to sponsor H.R. 10218 introduced by Rep. Clay Higgins to prohibit ATACMS missiles to Ukraine and take diplomatic measures to reduce the current threat of nuclear war. Last Saturday the National Press Club hosted “No Nuclear War: A Call to Reason” with panels of experts moderated by Scott Ritter and Medea Benjamin, available on YouTube.
It is urgent to act now. The world is truly on the brink of nuclear war. That would destroy everything. No one wins.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/12/07/watch-no-nuclear-war-a-call-to-reason/ Forum on Saturday, December 7, 2024 National Press Club “No Nuclear War — A Call to Reason” https://youtu.be/NLnI4GzNtiw Three panels on the threat and danger of nuclear war today, how to persuade the Biden administration to act responsibly, and how to mobilize the population to become involved in opposing nuclear war. Moderated by Scott Ritter and Medea Benjamin Panel participants: Max Blumenthal, Margaret Kimberley, Dan Kovalik, Wilmer Leon, Garland Nixon, Anya Parampil, Theodore Postol, Jose Vega, Mel Goodman and Larry Wilkerson.
San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, et al. v. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, et al.
Our attorney, Diane Curran, will be arguing before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Phoenix, AZ regarding the NRC’s denial of a hearing request for the operating license held by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for Unit 1 of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant.
Halloween Fright: Thanks to a trick instead of a treat by Governor Newsom, an aging nuclear monster still haunts the Central Coast of California
November 2 was set to mark the closure of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1, but SB 846 extended the aging reactor’s life through 2030. New data from the Governor’s office on renewable battery storage shows there’s no need for Diablo.
San Luis Obispo, CA — November 2 was meant to deliver a long-expected treat to Californians: the closure of Unit 1 nuclear reactor at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant on the expiration date of its 40-year license. But thanks to a surprise trick by Governor Gavin Newsom played on the California State Legislature in 2022, the reactor will continue operating indefinitely without critical seismic upgrades and safety tests. The reactor’s owner, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), has also failed to install cooling towers essential to meet Clean Water Act standards for protecting marine life.
Until September 2022, California residents could anticipate the timely closure of Diablo Canyon’s reactors. Under a hard-fought 2016 agreement between PG&E, labor unions, environmental groups, and others, Unit 1 was set to shut down on November 2, 2024, followed by Unit 2 in 2025. But in a last-minute move on September 1, 2022, pressured by the Governor, the State Legislature passed Senate Bill 846, extending Diablo Canyon’s operations to 2030. PG&E, meanwhile, went further, applying for a 20-year license extension—going four times beyond the five years specified in SB 846.
Despite the Governor’s warnings of power outages without Diablo Canyon, no such disruptions have occurred. Even during this past summer’s record-breaking heat waves, California’s energy grid met demand, demonstrating the success of renewable resources and battery storage. This stability shows that California can maintain a reliable grid without a hazardous nuclear plant.
In fact, since the Legislature’s 2022 vote, California has rapidly expanded its renewable capacity. By October 2024, data from the California Energy Commission and Public Utilities Commission showed an estimated capacity of 13,391 MW of battery storage—well above the 2,200 MW produced by Diablo Canyon’s reactors. Touting these gains, the Governor’s office stated on October 15 that this growth of California’s battery storage capacity “marks a 30% increase since April 2024, underscoring the state’s swift progress in building out clean energy infrastructure, especially during a summer marked by record-breaking heat.”
Linda Seeley, spokesperson for Mothers for Peace, remarked: “SB 846 prioritized an unfounded energy need over public health and environmental safety, disregarding both seismic risks and the growing embrittlement of Unit 1’s pressure vessel.” She added, “California has the tools to ensure reliable, clean energy through renewables and battery storage. We don’t need to compromise health and safety to keep the lights on.”
Diane Curran, attorney for the group, stated that both PG&E and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have failed to ensure the safety of the embrittled Unit 1 pressure vessel, a critical safety component that holds the reactor core. “The NRC is also allowing Unit 1 to operate past Nov. 2 despite serious concerns that earthquake faults under Diablo Canyon, which were discovered after it was built, could cause a nuclear accident,” Curran said.
She noted that the group’s concerns have been documented in testimony to state and federal regulators by Dr. Digby Macdonald, Professor Emeritus of nuclear materials science at the University of California and Dr. Peter Bird, Professor Emeritus of Geosciences at UCLA. For a detailed explanation by Dr. Bird of the seismic dangers facing Diablo Canyon, watch the video here.
November 2 should have been the Halloween treat Californians deserved, not the trick we received. When Halloween is over, this monster will continue to loom, threatening the health, safety, environment, and well-being of residents of the Golden State.
Larry Yee of Ojai is the former chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
OPINION: V.C. must sue to protect people from toxic Santa Susana Field Lab By Larry Yee July 17, 2024
Ninety percent or more of the toxic chemicals and radioactivity left! This is NO cleanup. It is unacceptable. Explain that to the parents of small children living nearby. … How many more children must develop cancers before our elected officials do something?’
Join campaign to clean up site of partial nuclear meltdown.
For over a year, the Ojai Valley News | Ventura County Sun has done an outstanding job of covering the travesty of the Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL). In the spring Ojai Magazine article “Radioactive rain,” reporter Kit Stolz writes in detail of the 1959 partial nuclear reactor meltdown that still haunts and poses danger to the people of Ventura County.
To mark the 65th anniversary of that disaster, local advocates and community organizations are engaged in a 10-day campaign that started with an Action Assembly on July 13 to demand local elected officials — in particular the Ventura County Board of Supervisors — take action and litigate like they have long resolved and promised to do.
SSFL was a Cold War-era testing facility for rocket engines and nuclear reactors. The thousands of tons of toxic chemicals that were used and dumped there, plus the radioactivity from at least four nuclear accidents, make the SSFL one of the most contaminated sites in the country.
Its 2,850 acres sit on a plateau just south of Simi Valley and west of Chatsworth with more than 700,000 people in surrounding communities living in harm’s way.
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is the agency responsible for enforcing the site’s decontamination and cleanup. Boeing, NASA and the Department of Energy are the responsible parties that were required by earlier consent orders to have the cleanup completed by 2017. But because of disputes, denials and delays, nothing was done and the mess remains.
Here we are 65 years later and SSFL has never been remediated, never been cleaned up, despite a long history of pleadings, protests, and petitions to the responsible parties, not to mention the ill effects to previous workers and nearby residents who have contracted cancer or other serious health problems. Currently, there are 80-plus children who have rare pediatric cancers.
DTSC should be ashamed and must be held accountable for allowing Boeing to skate on a full and complete cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Lab. To date, DTSC has proved to be ineffective and negligent in holding the polluters responsible.
Rather, in 2021, the agency conspired with Boeing behind closed doors and secretly developed a new plan.
Travesty
Here’s the travesty: The plan, called the Settlement Agreement, and its Environmental Impact Report (EIR), certified last year by DTSC, totally breaches the earlier Consent Order of 2007 that called for a full cleanup to background. If implemented, Boeing will be able to leave 90% or more of the contamination on site.
Ninety percent or more of the toxic chemicals and radioactivity left! This is NO cleanup. It is unacceptable. Explain that to the parents of small children living nearby.
In 2022, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution that declared it would sue the state (DTSC) if the final Environmental Impact Report did not support a full cleanup to background. The EIR didn’t come close and is woefully inadequate.
It’s been a year now and the supervisors have not acted. Why the delay? Why do they hesitate? How many more children must develop cancers before our elected officials do something?
I’ve lived in Ventura County for 38 years and am well aware of the divide between west and east county. While the Conejo Grade serves as a physical divide, we also are different culturally, demographically, and economically. Yet, we are all Ventura County residents and we share the same county governance system.
There are times, and this is one, when we all need to think of ourselves as neighbors, as one county, and act together in solidarity for our own shared interests. As the crow flies, Santa Susana is only 30 miles east of us. We breathe the same air, especially when the Santa Anas blow.
Citizens of the Ojai Valley, join with your neighbors in east county and demand the Board of Supervisors take action and litigate now.
Go to parentsagainstssfl.com/action-assembly for more information on what’s happening with our 10-day action campaign and learn how you can get involved to make a difference.
— Larry Yee of Ojai is the former chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Burying radioactive nuclear waste poses enormous risks By David Suzuki July 31, 2024
he spent fuel will remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, and contamination and leaks are possible during storage, containment, transportation and burial.
As the consequences of burning dirty, climate-altering fossil fuels hit harder by the day, many are seizing on nuclear power as a “clean” energy alternative. But how clean is it?
Although it may not produce the emissions that burning fossil fuels does, nuclear power presents many other problems. Mining, processing and transporting uranium to fuel reactors creates toxic pollution and destroys ecosystems, and reactors increase risks of nuclear weapons proliferation and radioactive contamination. Disposing of the highly radioactive waste is also challenging. http://large(dot)stanford(dot)edu/courses/2021/ph241/radzyminski2/
The people living in Ignace and South Bruce, Ontario, are learning about the potential dangers firsthand. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), a not-for-profit corporation representing nuclear power companies, has identified those communities as potential sites for disposing of six million bundles of highly radioactive waste in a “deep geological repository.” The federal government has agreed to the organization’s plans.
It’s an all-too-common story: environmentally damaging projects foisted on communities that need the money such projects promise.
In this case, the NWMO has already paid Indigenous and municipal governments large sums to accept its plans — ignoring communities that will also be affected along transportation routes or downstream of burial sites.
According to Canadian Dimension, industry expects to ship the wastes “in two to three trucks per day for fifty years, in one of three potential containers.” None of the three containment methods has been subjected to rigorous testing.
Even without an accident, trucking the wastes will emit low levels of radiation, which industry claims will produce “acceptable” exposure. Transferring it from the facility to truck and then to repository also poses major risks.
Although industry claims storing high-level radioactive waste in deep geological repositories is safe, no such facility has been approved anywhere in the world, despite many years of industry effort.
Canadian Dimension says, “a growing number of First Nations have passed resolutions or issued statements opposing the transportation and/or disposal of nuclear waste in northwestern Ontario, including Lac Seul First Nation, Ojibway Nation of Saugeen, Grassy Narrows First Nation, Fort William First Nation, and Wabaseemoong Independent Nations.”
“Our Nations have not been consulted, we have not given our consent, and we stand together in saying ‘no’ to the proposed nuclear waste storage site near Ignace.”
All have good reason to be worried. As Canadian Dimension reports, “All of Canada’s commercial reactors are the CANDU design, where 18 months in the reactor core turns simple uranium into an extremely complex and highly radioactive mix of over 200 different radioactive ingredients. Twenty seconds exposure to a single fuel bundle would be lethal.”
The spent fuel will remain radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, and contamination and leaks are possible during storage, containment, transportation and burial. Industry, with its usual “out of sight, out of mind” approach, has no valid way to monitor the radioactive materials once they’re buried.
With 3.3 million bundles of spent fuels already waiting in wet or dry storage at power plants in Ontario, New Brunswick, Quebec and Manitoba, and many more to come, industry is desperate to find a place to put it all.
Even with the many risks and no site yet chosen for burial, industry and governments are looking to expand nuclear power, not just with conventional power plants but also with “small modular reactors,” meaning they could be spread more widely throughout the country.
Nuclear power is enormously expensive and projects always exceed budgets. It also takes a long time to build and put a reactor into operation. Disposing of the radioactive wastes creates numerous risks. Energy from wind, solar and geothermal with energy storage costs far less, with prices dropping every day, and comes with far fewer risks.
Industry must find ways to deal with the waste it’s already created, but it’s time to move away from nuclear and fossil fuels. As David Suzuki Foundation research confirms, renewable energy from sources such as wind and solar is a far more practical, affordable and cleaner choice.
David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.
Radioactive Contamination of US Food and Water and What Congress Can Do About It Monday July 15, 2pm Eastern time
You’re invited to attend an online Congressional Briefing for members of Congress and their staffs on the growing problem of radioactive contamination of US food and water and what Congress can do about it.
The briefing will be held via Zoom on Monday, July 15 at 2pm Eastern time. Registration is required.
Distinguished experts and leaders presenting at the briefing include:
US Congresswoman Cori Bush – Representing Missouri’s 1st Congressional District (invited)
Arjun Makhijani – Nuclear engineer, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, author of Exploring Tritium’s Dangers, member of an independent scientists’ panel commissioned by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat to review radioactive dumping from Fukushima into the Pacific
Prof. Bob Richmond – University of Hawaii Marine Biologist, expert in biological uptake of radiation in the oceans, member of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat panel on Fukushima
Kimberly Roberson – Project Director, Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN). She served on the board of National Association of Nutrition Professionals and helped organize the FFAN Coalition which petitioned FDA for better food regulations following the Fukushima disaster.
James Gormley – President and Senior Policy Advisor of Citizens for Health and a leading consumer health advocate
Moderator Cindy Folkers – Radiation and Health Hazard Specialist with Beyond Nuclear
Radioactive contamination stands to get worse due to planned ongoing releases of radioactive wastewater from Fukushima Daiichi into the Pacific Ocean. Despite this, there are currently no binding FDA standards, very little testing or monitoring that has been made public, a lack of transparency about any such testing, and no labeling or other information available to US consumers about radioactivity in their food that can guide their choices. Food from Japan that exceeds Japan’s radioactivity standards and can’t be sold there is nonetheless sold and served to US consumers here and to US service men, women and their families overseas. Congress can and should use its oversight of the FDA and other powers to confront and ameliorate this growing public health threat.
The briefing is organized by the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network and co sponsored by the NGO’s Beyond Nuclear, Citizens for Health, Ecological Options Network, Food and Water Watch, San Clemente Green, and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR National as well as PSR’s Greater Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco Bay Area Chapters)
A grassroots group is kicking off a campaign to urge four local governments to sue the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) over its failure to enforce cleanup agreements at a Simi Valley site contaminated in the 1940s and 1950s by thousands of rocket tests and nuclear-reactor experiments.
The campaign kickoff event is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, July 13, at Strathearn Historical Park, 37 Strathearn Place, Simi Valley.
The event kicks off 10 days of in-person actions at upcoming supervisor and city council meetings.
Despite cleanup agreements being in place with The Boeing Company (Boeing), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the state has failed to demand they clean up the contamination to the standard originally agreed upon.
“We are asking four local governments to join together and sue the state to litigate over the final Environmental Impact Report,” said Larry Yee, a resident of Ojai and former chair of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Yee said the group is asking the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and the cities of Los Angeles and Simi Valley to sue DTSC over the Environmental Impact Report recently issued for the site.
Because I was so worried about the ignorance of the world’s media and politicians about radiation biology after the dreadful accident at Fukushima in Japan, I organized a 2 day symposium at the NY Academy of Medicine on March 11 and 12, 2013, titled The Medical and Ecological Consequences of Fukushima. It was addressed by some of the world’s leading scientists, epidemiologist, physicists and physicians who presented their latest data and findings on Fukushima [i] I hoped to attract representatives of the global media to educate them.
Background
The Great Eastern earthquake and massive tsunami on the east coast of Japan, caused the meltdown of three nuclear reactors within several days, and four hydrogen explosions in buildings 1,2, 3 and 4. Fukushima is now described as the greatest industrial accident in history. Massive quantities of radiation escaped into the air and water from these damaged reactors, three times more noble gases – argon, xenon and krypton than were released at Chernobyl, together with huge amounts of other radioactive elements, such as cesium, strontium, tritium, iodine, plutonium americium etc. Unfortunately the people of Japan were not notified of the meltdowns for 3 months because the government “did not want to create panic.”[ii]
A typical 1000 megawatt nuclear reactor contains as much radiation as that released by the explosions of 1000 Hiroshima sized bombs and the fissioned uranium becomes one billion times more radioactive than the original uranium because more than 200 intensely radioactive elements have been created whose half-lives range from seconds to millions of years. [iii]
So concerned was the Japanese government according to the then Prime Minister Naoto Kan, that they were considering plans to evacuate 35 million people from Tokyo, because other reactors including Fukushima Daiini on the east coast were also at risk.
Thousands of people fleeing from the smoldering reactors were not notified where the radioactive plumes were travelling despite the fact that the Japanese government and the US were tracking the radioactive plumes, so people fled directly into the path of the highest radiation concentrations where they were exposed to high levels of whole-body external gamma radiation being emitted by the radioactive elements inhaling radioactive air, and swallowing radioactive elements. Nor were these people supplied with inert potassium iodide which would have blocked the uptake of deadly radioactive iodine by their thyroid glands except in the town of Miharu. However prophylactic iodine was distributed to the staff of Fukushima Medical University in the days after the accident after extremely high levels of radioactive iodine – 1.9 million becquerels/kg were found in leafy vegetables near the University.[iv]This contamination was widespread in vegetables, fruit, meat, milk, rice and tea in many areas of Japan.[v]
The Fukushima meltdown disaster is not over and will never end. The radioactive fallout which remains toxic for hundreds to thousands of years covers large swathes of Japan will never be “cleaned up” and will contaminate food, humans and animals virtually forever. The three reactors which experienced total meltdowns I predict will never be dissembled or decommissioned and even TEPCO – Tokyo Electric Power Company – says it will take at least 30 to 40 years and the International Atomic Energy Agency predicts more than 40 years before they can make any progress because of the enormous levels of radiation at these damaged reactors.
Much of the temporary cooling systems cobbled together soon after the accident are composed of plastic piping held together with duct tape and several months ago the electricity supplying the pumps to circulate the water failed for 30 hours because a rat had eaten into the temporary electrical system putting the reactors and cooling pools at great risk as the water levels fell.
The fishing industry most likely will be destroyed on the east coast of Japan. The amount of radioactive water that has already been discharged into the Pacific is far greater than that released to the sea by Chernobyl. Fish caught out as far as 100 Km from Fukushima are radioactive and tuna caught off the coast of California are already contaminated by cesium 134 and 137 from Fukushima.[vi]In late June 2013 it was discovered that the levels of tritium in the Fukushima Port are the highest yet detected at 1,100 Becquerels per litre and this figure indicates huge quantities of radioactive water accompanied by many more dangerous radioactive elements are still escaping into the Pacific Ocean from leaking ground water and other sources.[vii]
Tritium is radioactive hydrogen H3 and there is no way to separate tritium from contaminated water. It is a soft beta emitter and a potent carcinogen with a half-life of 12.3 years and remains radioactive for more than 100 years. It concentrates in aquatic organisms including algae, seaweed, crustaceans and fish. Because it is tasteless, odorless and invisible, it will inevitably be ingested in food, including seafood for many decades. It combines in the DNA molecule – the gene – where it can induce mutations that later lead to cancer. It causes brain tumors, birth deformities, and cancers of many organs.
At the same time strontium 90, which induces bone cancer and leukemia has been detected in ground water near unit 2 at 30 times the so-called safety level. In other words there is no stability at the plant as huge quantities of radioactive elements, more than anyone has been able or willing to measure, have been continuously released into the air and water since the multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Complex.
This accident is enormous in its medical implications. It will induce an epidemic of cancer, as people inhale the radioactive elements, eat radioactive vegetables, rice, fish and meat, and drink radioactive milk and teas. In 1986, a single meltdown and explosion at Chernobyl covered 40% of the European land mass with radioactive elements.Already, according to a 2009 report published by the New York Academy of Sciences, over one million people have perished as a direct result of this catastrophe, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg because large parts of Europe and the food will remain radioactive for hundreds of years . [viii]
Medical Implications of Radiation
Fact number one
No dose of radiation is safe. Each dose received by the body is cumulative and adds to the risk of developing malignancy or genetic disease.
Fact number two
Children are ten to twenty times more vulnerable to the carcinogenic effects of radiation than adults. Girls are twice as sensitive as boys and women are more sensitive than men. Fetuses are thousands of times more sensitive. Immuno-compromised patients are also extremely sensitive
Fact number three
Very high doses of radiation received from a nuclear meltdown or from a nuclear weapon explosion can cause acute radiation sickness, with alopecia, severe nausea and diarrhea and thrombocytopenia. Reports of such illnesses, particularly in children appeared within the first few months after the Fukushima accident.
Fact number four
As we all know, Ionizing radiation from radioactive elements, and radiation emitted from X ray machines and CT scanners, can be carcinogenic. The latent period of carcinogenesis for leukemia is 5-10 years and solid cancers 15-80 years. It has been shown that all modes of cancer can be induced by radiation, as well as over 2600 genetic diseases now described in the medical literature.
But as we increase the level of background radiation in our environment from medical procedures, X ray scanning machines at airports, or radioactive materials continually escaping from nuclear reactors and nuclear waste dumps, we will inevitably increase the incidence of cancer as well as the incidence of genetic disease in future generations.
Types of ionizing radiation
1. X rays (usually electrically generated), are electromagnetic, and only cause mutations the instant they pass through your body. You do not become radioactive but your genes may be mutated.
2. Similarly gamma radiation, is electromagnetic, emitted by radioactive materials generated in nuclear reactors and from some naturally occurring radioactive elements in the soil.
3. Alpha radiation, which is particulate, and composed of 2 protons and 2 neutrons, emitted from uranium atoms and from other dangerous elements generated in reactors (such as plutonium, americium, curium, einsteinium, etc- all known as alpha emitters and have an atomic weight greater than uranium). Alpha particles travel a very short distance in the human body. They cannot penetrate the layers of dead skin in the epidermis to damage living skin cells. But when these radioactive elements enter the lung, liver, bone or other organs, they transfer a large dose of radiation over a long period of time to a very small volume of cells. Most of these cells are killed, but some on the edge of the tiny radiation field remain viable to be mutated, and cancer may later develop. Alpha emitters are among the most carcinogenic materials known.
4. Beta radiation, like alpha also particulate, is a charged electron emitted from radioactive elements such as strontium 90, cesium 137, iodine 131 etc. The beta particle is light in mass, it travels further than an alpha particle but also, mutates genes.
5. Neutron radiation is released during the fission process in a reactor or a bomb. Reactor #1 at Fukushima has been periodically emitting neutron radiation as sections of the molten core become intermittently critical. Neutrons are large radioactive particles that travel many kilometers, and they pass through everything including concrete, steel etc. There is no way to hide from them and they are extremely mutagenic.
So, let’s describe just four of the radioactive elements that are continually being released into the air and water at Fukushima. Remember, though, there are over 200 such elements each with its own characteristics and pathways in the food chain and the human body. They are invisible, tasteless and odorless. When the cancer manifests it is impossible to determine its aetiology, but there is a large literature proving that radiation causes cancer including the data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
1. Cesium 137 is a beta and gamma emitter with a half-life of 30 years. That means in 30 years only half of its radioactive energy has decayed, so it is detectable as a radioactive hazard for over 300 years. Cesium, like all radioactive elements bio-concentrates in at each level of the food chain – from soil to grass, fruit and vegetables and tens to hundreds of times more in meat and milk andn the sea from algae to crustaceans to small fish to big fish.The human body stands atop the food chain. As an analogue of potassium, it becomes ubiquitous in all cells. It can induce brain cancer, rhabdomyosarcomas, ovarian or testicular cancer and, most importantly, genetic disease.
2. Strontium 90 is a high-energy beta emitter, half-life 28 years, detectably radioactive for 300 years. As a calcium analogue, it is a bone-seeker. It concentrates in the food chain, specifically milk (including breast milk), and is laid down in bones and teeth in the human body, where it can irradiate an osteoblast causing bone cancer; or a white blood cell inducing leukemia.
3. Radioactive iodine 131 is a beta and gamma emitter with a half-life of 8 days, hazardous for ten weeks. It bio-concentrates in the food chain, in vegetables and milk, and then the human thyroid gland where it is a potent carcinogen inducing thyroid disease and/or thyroid cancer. It is important to note that of 174,376 children under the age of 18 to have been examined by thyroid ultrasound in the Fukushima Prefecture, 12 have been definitively diagnosed with thyroid cancer and 15 more are suspected to have the disease. Almost 200,000 more children are yet to be examined. Of these 174,367 children 43.2% have either thyroid cysts and/or nodules.[ix]
Thyroid cancer is extremely rare in children- this is an extraordinary situation. In Chernobyl thyroid cancers were not diagnosed until 4 years post-accident. This early presentation indicates that these Japanese children almost certainly received a high dose of radioactive iodine but also points to the fact that high doses of other radioactive elements released during the meltdowns were received by the exposed population in Fukushima prefecture and elsewhere so the rate of cancer in Japan is almost certain to rise.
4. Plutonium, one of the most deadly, is an alpha emitter. So toxic that one millionth of a gram will induce cancer if inhaled into the lung. It is an iron analogue and combines with transferrin and it causes liver cancer, bone cancer, leukemia, or multiple myeloma. It concentrates in the testicles and ovaries where it can induce testicular or ovarian cancer, or genetic diseases in future generations. It also crosses the placenta where it is teratogenic like thalidomide, the morning sickness drug, did years ago. There are medical homes full of grossly deformed children near Chernobyl never before seen in the history of medicine.
The half-life of plutonium is 24,400 years, radioactive for 250,000 years, available to induce cancers, congenital deformities, and genetic diseases for virtually the rest of time.
Plutonium is also fuel for atomic bombs. 5 kilos is fuel for a weapon which would vaporize a city. Each reactor makes 250 Kg of plutonium a year. It is postulated that less than one kilo of plutonium, if adequately distributed, could kill induce lung cancer every person on earth.
Conclusion
In summary, the radioactive contamination and fallout from nuclear power plant accidents will have medical ramifications that will never cease because the food will continue to concentrate the radioactive elements for hundreds to thousands of years inducing epidemics of cancer, leukemia and genetic disease. Already we are seeing such pathology and abnormalities in birds and insects and because they reproduce very fast it is possible to observe disease caused by radiation over many generations within a relatively short space of time
Pioneering research conducted by Dr Tim Mousseau, an evolutionary biologist, in the exclusion zones of both Chernobyl and Fukushima has documented very high rates of tumors in birds, genetic mutations in birds and insects, many of the male barn swallows are sterile and many birds have smaller than normal brains. What happens to animals will happen to human beings.[x]
The effects of low‐dose radiation: Soviet science, the nuclear industry – and independence?
Author: Anders Pape Møller, Timothy A. Mousseau
Published: Feb 15, 2013 – From issue: Volume 10 Issue 1 (February 2013)
The Japanese government is desperately trying to “cleanup” radioactively contaminated soil, trees, leaves etc. But in reality all that can be done is collect it, place it in containers – the government contracted workers are using plastic bags, and transfer it to another location. It cannot be made neutral and it cannot be prevented from spreading in the future. Some contractors have allowed their workers to empty radioactive debris, soil and leaves into streams and other illegal places. Then the main question becomes – where to place the contaminated material stored safely away from the environment of thousands of years. There is no safe place in Japan for this to happen, let alone to store thousands of tons of high level radioactive waste which rests precariously at the 54 Japanese nuclear reactors.
Last but not least Australian uranium fueled the Fukushima reactors. Australia exports uranium for use in nuclear power plants to 12 countries including the US, Japan, France, Britain, Finland, Sweden, South Korea, China, Belgium, Spain, Canada and Taiwan. 270,000 metric tons of deadly radioactive waste exists in the world today with 12,000 metric tons being added yearly.
It must be isolated from the environment for one million years and no container lasts longer that 100 years. The isotopes will inevitably leak contaminating the food chain, inducing epidemics of cancer, leukemia, congenital deformities and genetic diseases for the rest of time.
This then is the legacy we leave to future generations
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[i] helencaldicottfoundation.org, The Medical and Ecological Consequences of Fukushima March 11 and 12
[ii] National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, July 2012
[v]Tests Find Cesium 172 times the limit in Miyagi Yacon Tea, The Asahi Simbun April 13, 20012; Trust Deficit, The Worst Fallout of Fukushima, Suvendrini Kakuchi, Inter Press Service News Agency, July 17, 2013
[viii][viii] Chernobyl, Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, Yablokov, Nesterenko and Nesterenko, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol 1181, 2009
Heal Fukushima 