Evidently the crisis at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan is a lot worse than what we’ve been led to believe, which is hard to ascertain as what we have been led to believe ranges from “Oh my God, it’s a nuclear meltdown!” to “Radiation is actually good for you, especially in mother’s milk.”
I was watching some old clips of the Three Mile Island meltdown on Monday, which was the 30th anniversary of that disaster, and the news clips portrayed genuine concern of an impending doom. Though there were radiation releases at Three Mile Island as a result of meltdown, the containment systems did eventually bring the situation under control. The people shown on the old clips all displayed looks on their faces that said, “What the hell were we thinking? We have got to stop this right now.”
And indeed, many tried to put an end to the psychotic notion of nuclear power plants, that under the best of conditions, leave behind deadly waste with a half life of 35,000 years.
Three Mile Island had two reactors, only one of which melted down. The Fukushima facility has six reactors, all in trouble.
In reading my comments to my article yesterday, the reports of radiation in water particles were all coming from the east coast. Think about that. Before those weather systems ever got to the east coast, they passed over the west coast, over the continental divide, and across the plains, distributing precipitation every step of the way. If you remember, the so called experts told us that the radiation clouds reaching the west coast would dissipate to a great extent during their eight day journey from Japan.
Now, if we are getting radiation readings that aren’t so bad on the east coast, then what must the readings be on the west coast? Maybe not so good?
The fact is no matter how dispersed the individual particles are, if a single one is breathed into the lungs it begins to cause damage immediately. And as the weather systems have distributed precipitation clear across the United States logic dictates that it has already been introduced into our food chain. The only question is, to what extent?
The people who know are not telling us, which leads me to believe it is a lot worse than is being projected. I am sickened when I think that those we are paying to guard our health and keep us informed are putting billion dollar loans to the nuclear power industry above our health. But they are.
I think they believe that if they only give us the bad news a little bit at a time, by the time we finally realize the full magnitude of the situation we will simply accept it as a fate accompli.
I talked yesterday about Japanese ownership of properties in the United States. How about this? We tell the empire of Japan, “Through your negligence you have just poisoned our people. We are zeroing all accounts and you now owe us an annuity of one quarter of your nation’s gross domestic product for the next 35,000 years or until all consequences of your negligent act have dissipated into history.”
As Americans we’ve always been held to account for every situation. Did we not pay to rebuild Japan after WWII, even though they fired the first shot?
I think the American people had better put their foot down on this one. We need to stop nuclear energy production because it just isn’t worth it. And then we need to ascertain the damage done to us by the Japanese and get equitable compensation for our people who are going be adversely affected for God knows how long.
Rachel, I like the idea of the annuity, but unfortunately they might not be around to pay it, and we might not be around to collect it. Good article, though.
Rachel — great article. I think that the damage is more extensive than what they are telling us because we would probably all panic. I love your idea about them repaying us for the damage they have caused. However, the United States has no balls and will do absolutely nothing about it. They will ignore it like they ignore the 99ers. How can we stop nuclear energy production? This government does not listen to the people as they continue to break laws and spit on the Constitution. Unless we unit, we are doomed.
Pardon my spelling I meant “unite”
Holy crap, what are they thinking? They need to bury those reactors. They’re toast. Boo Hoo that they’re out a few billions. I’m no engineer, but WTF building those reactors on a coast of the country that named Tsunami. Would ya like a dash of Cesium or Plutonium with that sushi?
…poor americans…iradiated by the japan nuke…i am bursting into tears…
ok, to put aside my animosity to the us government facts and war – nuke, chemical and bio weapons inclination, the orindary american has no fault and should not pay with their health for the misscarriage of such a delicate issue as nuclear energy…
i too hate not being told the truth (have already gone through that when the cernobyl disaster happened) but if you look at the world map at night you can see what an huge energy consumer the us is…(that’s only an example)…closing down nuke plants starts with energy saving…and as far as i know the us isn’t doing great about it (i hope i am missinformed)…so before asking the japo’s to pay you for the damage, think that even starting a war is not an excuse for hiroshima and nagasaky (i would die if my nation had such thing on their conscience!!!)…nothing is…AND US DID IT!
meanwhile i only have one adivce for you unfortunate people closer to the nuke plant than me…try staying inside as much as you can and dose yourselves with loads of (natural) vitamins if there are any left in the us (i know how this sounds)…even if there are important radioation leaks or not, this will help…
Lala,
Nagasaki and Hiroshima were absolutely unnecessary as the US could have blown up a deserted island to show the destructive power of the bomb and then demanded Japan’s surrender. The cities were bombed for no other reason than the sick minded scientists’ desire to study the long term and short term effects.
We the people of the United States have paid for that tragedy for the last 60 years with the fruits of our labor and the sweat of our brow, paying to rebuild Japan and make it third in the world economy.
As for Japan paying for radiating us, they should as in the end analysis the people of every country are responsible for the actions or inactions, hence liable acts, of their governments.
although i also agree with the idea of paying for our deeds…i do think nuclear accidents are beyond this…you might be right when being angry that you, civilians, have to work for the benefit of japo’s (i might be as angry if in your place, probably-oferring help is not making one rich)…the mere difference stays though between intended and non-intended harm…
…not to be thought of as against the us (i am not, i hate governments promoting war and crimes against civilians, even with the purpose of ‘maintaing peace’ :)) – the us gov’s not the only one) i know for one thing that the largest amount given for the built of the second sarcophagus at cernobyl comes from the us…probably because they know the best what the consequences can be:D…so yes, the us have paid a lot for nuclear damage, thiers or others’…
Lala,
An accident is an accident, but allowing a six reactor nuclear facility to be built on a fault line beside the ocean in a place prone to tsunamis must be considered gross negligence.
Yes, Henry.
THAT is the most avoided as much as obvious fact. A bright 4 year old would figure that out in less than a second. We are obviously led by the lowest of the low.
Oh my! What a surprise! Greed based policy is, has been, and always be “shoot the messenger”.
Guess it’s true that “ya just can’t fix stupid”!
Only a massive purge will reverse human reality. Question is “who will purge whom?”
Stay tuned for the next episode of the new hit reality show. Oh isn’t this fun?
Oops…that’s “always WILL be”. (Whatever! Who cares?)
update:
here’s some amazing point read on elena filatova’s site leading to the point here :”Radiation is guest who does not need visas to travel; international by nature radiation appears without invitations and stays forever. The evil, dark wind of that day carried 70% of Chernobyl’ s heavy radiation into the neighboring country of Belorussia.”
Radiation levels now 400 times normal in soil beyond the 30km radius safety zone. It is said that the cesium-137 content spewed is 4 times worse than the chernobyl disaster .
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.asahi.com%2Fenglish%2FTKY201104080169.html
Wow! What a surprise! Hey! Just had a crazy thought!
Could it be about the….uh…money?
Nah….sorry….I forgot to take my medication….again!