{"id":12287,"date":"2011-05-16T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=12287"},"modified":"2011-05-14T17:53:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-14T16:53:29","slug":"the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-in-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/05\/the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-in-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

This press conference organized\u00a0by Global Research was held in the context of Helen Caldicott’s public lecture to Montreal on March 18, 2011.
\n<\/em>
\nFirst I want to present this report, produced by the New York Academy of Sciences, a report on Chernobyl.\u00a0 It can be downloaded.(2)\u00a0 They translated 5,000 articles from Russian for the first time into English.\u00a0 It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a result of Chernobyl, despite what the WH0(3) says and the IAEA.(4)\u00a0 This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of medicine.\u00a0 Because everybody should know about this.<\/p>\n

Then we extrapolate through to Japan.\u00a0 Japan is by orders of magnitude many times worse than Chernobyl.\u00a0 Never in my life did I think that six nuclear reactors would be at risk.(5)\u00a0 I knew that three GE engineers who helped design these Mark I GE reactors, resigned because they knew they were dangerous.(6)<\/p>\n

So Japan built them on an earthquake fault.\u00a0 The reactors partially withstood the earthquake, but the external electricity supply was cut off, and the electricity supplies the cooling water, a million gallons a minute, to each of those six reactors.\u00a0 Without the cooling water, the water [level] falls, and the rods are so hot they melt, like at Three Mile Island, and at Chernobyl.<\/p>\n

So the emergency diesel generators, which are as large as a house, got destroyed by the tsunami, so there is no way to keep the water circulating in the reactors.(7)\u00a0 Also, on the roofs of the reactors, not within the containment vessel, are cooling pools.\u00a0 Every year they remove about thirty tons of the most radioactive rods that you can possibly imagine.(8)\u00a0 Each one is twelve feet long and half an inch thick.\u00a0 It gives out so much radiation, that if you stand next to it for a couple of minutes, you’ll die.\u00a0 Not drop dead.\u00a0 Remember Litvinenko, the Russian, who got poisoned by polonium?(9)\u00a0 You’ll die like that, with your hair falling out, and bleeding with massive infection, like AIDS patients die.<\/p>\n

And [the spent fuel rods] are thermally hot, so they have to be put in a big pool, and continually cooled.\u00a0 The pool has really no roof.<\/p>\n

There have been three hydrogen explosions, blowing off the roof of the building, not the containment vessel of the core, but the roof.\u00a0 And exposing the cooling pool.(10)\u00a0 Two of the cooling pools are dry.\u00a0 They have no water in them.\u00a0 Meaning that the nuclear fuel rods are covered with a material called zirconium.\u00a0 When zirconium is exposed to air, it burns, it ignites.\u00a0 Two of the cooling pools at this moment are burning.\u00a0 In the cooling pools are many times, like 10 to 20 times more radiation than in each reactor core.\u00a0 In each reactor core is as much long-lived radiation as would be produced by a thousand Hiroshima-sized bombs.\u00a0 We are dealing with diabolical energy.<\/p>\n

E=MC2 is the energy that blows up nuclear bombs.\u00a0 Einstein said nuclear power is a hell of a way to boil water.(11)\u00a0 Because that is all nuclear power is used for, to boil water through the massive heat, turn it into steam, and turn a turbine which generates electricity.<\/p>\n

Now when you fission uranium, 200 new elements are formed, all of which are much more poisonous to the body than the original uranium.(12)\u00a0 Although uranium is pretty poisonous.\u00a0 America used it in Fallujah, and in Baghdad.\u00a0 And in Fallujah, 80 per cent of the babies being born are grossly deformed.(13)\u00a0 They’re being born without brains, single eyes, no arms…\u00a0 The doctors have told the women to stop having babies.\u00a0 The incidence of childhood cancer has gone up about twelve times.\u00a0 This is genocide — it’s a nuclear war being conducted in Iraq.\u00a0 The uranium that they’re using lasts more than 4.5 billion years.\u00a0 So we’re contaminating the cradle of civilization.\u00a0 “The coalition of the willing!”<\/p>\n

In the nuclear power plants, however, there is a huge amount of radiation: two hundred elements.\u00a0 Some last seconds, some last millions of years.\u00a0 Radioactive iodine lasts six weeks, causes thyroid cancer.\u00a0 That’s why people are saying, “Better take potassium iodide,” because that blocks the thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine, which later can cause thyroid cancer.<\/p>\n

In Chernobyl, over 20,000 people have developed thyroid cancer.(14)\u00a0 They have their thyroids out, and they will die unless they take thyroid replacement every day, like a diabetic has to take insulin. Strontium-90 will get out, it lasts for 600 years.\u00a0 It goes to the bone, where it causes bone cancer or leukemia.\u00a0 Cesium lasts for 600 years — it’s all over Europe.\u00a0 40 per cent of Europe is still radioactive.\u00a0 Turkish food is extremely radioactive.\u00a0 Do not buy Turkish dried apricots, or Turkish hazelnuts.\u00a0 The Turks were so cross with the Russians, they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after Chernobyl.(15)<\/p>\n

Forty per cent of Europe is still radioactive.\u00a0 Farms in Britain, their lambs are so full of cesium they can’t sell them.\u00a0 Don\u2019t eat European food.<\/p>\n

But that’s nothing compared to what’s happening now.\u00a0 One of the most deadly [nuclear byproducts] is plutonium, named after Pluto, god of the underworld.\u00a0 One millionth of a gram, if you inhale it, would give you cancer.\u00a0 Hypothetically, one pound of plutonium if evenly distributed could give everyone on earth cancer.\u00a0 Each reactor has 250 kilograms of plutonium in it.\u00a0 You only need 2.5 kilograms to make an atomic bomb, because plutonium is what they make bombs with.<\/p>\n

So any country that has a reactor, works with your uranium.\u00a0 You [Canada] are the biggest exporter of uranium in the world.(16)\u00a0 Canada sells two things: it sells wheat for life, and uranium for death.\u00a0 Plutonium is going to get out and spread all over the northern hemisphere.\u00a0 It’s already heading towards North America now.<\/p>\n

Radioactive iodine, plus strontium, plus cesium, plus tritium, and I could go on and on and on.\u00a0 When it rains, downs come fallout, and it concentrates in food.\u00a0 If it gets into the sea, the algae concentrate it, hundreds of times.\u00a0 And the crustaceans concentrate it, hundreds of times.\u00a0 And then the little fish, then the big fish, then us.(17)<\/p>\n

Because we stand on the apex of the food chain.\u00a0 You can’t taste these radioactive food elements, you can’t see them, you can’t smell them.\u00a0 They’re silent.\u00a0 When you get them inside your body, you don’t suddenly drop dead of cancer, it takes five to sixty years to get your cancer, and when you feel a lump in your breast, it doesn’t say, “I was made by some strontium-90 in a piece of fish you ate twenty years ago.”<\/p>\n

All radiation is damaging.\u00a0 It’s cumulative — each dose you get adds to your risk of getting cancer.\u00a0 The americium is more dangerous than plutonium — I could go on and on.\u00a0 Depends if it rains if you’re going to get it or not.\u00a0 If it rains and the radiation comes down, don’t grow food, and don’t eat the food, and I mean don’t eat it for 600 years.<\/p>\n

Radioactive waste from nuclear power is going to be buried, I hear, next to Lake Ontario.\u00a0 It’s going to leak, last for millions of years, it’s going to get into the water, and into the food chains.\u00a0 Radioactive waste will induce epidemics of cancer, leukemia, and genetic disease for the rest of time.\u00a0 This is the greatest public health hazard the world has ever witnessed, apart from the threat every day of nuclear war.<\/p>\n

Einstein said “the splitting of the atom changed everything, save man’s mode of thinking” — very profound — “and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”\u00a0 We are arrogant, we have a lot of hubris, and I think the reptilian mid-brain of some men’s brains is pathological.(18)<\/p>\n

We are in a situation where we have harnessed the energy of the sun.\u00a0 It is totally out of control.\u00a0 And there’s simply nothing we can do about it.<\/p>\n

NOTES
\n<\/strong>
\n2) “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe For the People and the Environment,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
\nhttp:\/\/www.nyas.org\/publications\/annals\/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1<\/a><\/p>\n

3) “Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident,” World Health Organization. http:\/\/www-ns.iaea.org\/appraisals\/chernobyl.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

4) “Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident,” International Atomic Energy Agency. http:\/\/www-ns.iaea.org\/appraisals\/chernobyl.asp<\/a><\/p>\n

5) For a general description of the complex, including cross-sections of the six reactors, see http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fukushima_I_nuclear_accidents<\/a><\/p>\n

6) http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/GE_Three<\/a>
\nExcerpt: On February 2, 1976, Gregory C. Minor, Richard B. Hubbard, and Dale G. Bridenbaugh “blew the whistle” on safety problems at nuclear power plants. The three engineers gained the attention of journalists and their disclosures about the threats of nuclear power had a significant impact. They timed their statements to coincide with their resignations from responsible positions in General Electric’s nuclear energy division, and later established themselves as consultants on the nuclear power industry for state governments, federal agencies, and overseas governments.<\/p>\n

7) “Japanese Scramble to Avert Meltdowns as Nuclear Crisis Deepens After Quake,” New York Times, March 12, 2011, By HIROKO TABUCHI and MATTHEW L. WALD<\/p>\n

8] The design manual for General Electric boiling water reactors was posted as a PDF document on the “What Really Happened” website, and can be downloaded at: http:\/\/whatreallyhappened.com\/content\/ge-manual-bwr6-reactor-design-and-operation<\/a><\/p>\n

9) http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko<\/a>
\nExcerpt: Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who escaped prosecution in Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom. He wrote two books, “Blowing up Russia: Terror from within” and “Lubyanka Criminal Group”, where he accused the Russian secret services of staging Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts to bring Vladimir Putin to power.\u00a0 On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later, becoming the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. According to doctors, “Litvinenko’s murder represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism”. Litvinenko’s allegations about the misdeeds of the FSB and his public deathbed accusations that Russian president Vladimir Putin were behind his unusual malady resulted in worldwide media coverage.<\/p>\n

10) “Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors,”
\nKeith Bradsher & Hiroko Tabuchi, NY Times, March 17, 2011
\nwww.nytimes.com\/2011\/03\/18\/world\/asia\/18spent.html<\/p>\n

“Radiation Spread Seen; Frantic Repairs Go On,”
\nDavid Sanger & William J. Broad, NY Times, March 17, 2011
\nwww.nytimes.com\/2011\/03\/18\/world\/asia\/18intel.html<\/p>\n

“U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan\u2019s Nuclear Plant,”
\nJames Glanz & William J. Broad, NY Times, April 6, 2011
\nwww.nytimes.com\/2011\/04\/06\/world\/asia\/06nuclear.html<\/p>\n

“Focus on preventing explosions at Japan nuke plant,”
\nMari Yamaguchi, Associated Press, April 6, 2011
\nhttp:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20110406\/ap_on_bi_ge\/as_japan_earthquake_654<\/a><\/p>\n

11) http:\/\/wisequotes.org\/nuclear-power-is-one-hell-of-a-way-to-boil-water<\/a><\/p>\n

12) http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Decay_product<\/a><\/p>\n

13) “US Accused of Using Poison Gases in Fallujah,”
\nDemocracy Now, Monday, November 29th, 2004
\nhttp:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2004\/11\/29\/u_s_accused_of_using_poison<\/a><\/p>\n

“Evidence of Extensive War Crimes, Unprecedented
\nin the annals of legal history,” Niloufer Bhagwat,
\nGlobal Research, December 11, 2004
\nhttp:\/\/globalresearch.ca\/articles\/BHA412A.html<\/a><\/p>\n

“Depleted Uranium Weapons: Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No Joke,” by Dave Lindorff, Global Research, October 20, 2009
\nhttp:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/index.php?context=va&aid=15744<\/a><\/p>\n

“The consequences of a US war crime:
\nCancer rate in Fallujah worse than Hiroshima,”
\nTom Eley, World Socialist, July 23, 2010
\nhttp:\/\/www.wsws.org\/articles\/2010\/jul2010\/fall-j23.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n

“Research Links Rise in Fallujah Birth Defects and Cancers to US Assault,” Martin Chulov, The Guardian\/UK, December 31, 2010
\nhttp:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/headline\/2010\/12\/31<\/a><\/p>\n

14) “Chernobyl’s Continuing Thyroid Impact,”
\nBy Mary Shomon, December 15, 2003
\nhttp:\/\/thyroid.about.com\/cs\/nuclearexposure\/a\/chernob.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

15) “Authorities lied on impact of Chernobyl in Turkey,”
\nGreenpeace Report
\nhttp:\/\/www.blackraiser.com\/cherno.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

16) WISE Report on the Worldwide Uranium Market
\nhttp:\/\/www.wise-uranium.org\/umkt.html<\/a><\/p>\n

“Why is Uranium Important to Canada?”
\nCanadian Nuclear Association,
\nhttp:\/\/www.cna.ca\/english\/pdf\/nuclearfacts\/04-NuclearFacts-uranium.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

17) http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bioaccumulation<\/a><\/p>\n

18) http:\/\/www.crystalinks.com\/reptilianbrain.html<\/a><\/p>\n

_______________________<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Helen Caldicott is\u00a0the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and is the author of “<\/em>The New Nuclear Danger” (The New Press, 2002).<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Our thanks to\u00a0Felton Davis for the transcription from the GRTV Video recording and for the annotations.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 globalresearch.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan is by orders of magnitude many times worse than Chernobyl. Never in my life did I think that six nuclear reactors would be at risk. I knew that three GE engineers who helped design these Mark I GE reactors, resigned because they knew they were dangerous. So Japan built them on an earthquake fault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}