Neo-Nuclearism as a Cargo Cult
Friday, 11 March 2016 09:37
Forgetting Fukushima, Denying Dai-ichi
By James Heddle
�Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts.� - Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynahan
Fallout as Blowback
As the 5-year anniversary rolls around it�s clear to all who care to notice that the Fukushima triple meltdown nuclear disaster is still not �under control� - as Prime Minister Abe claimed to the Olympic Committee in his successful bid to host the coming 2020 Games - but is still on-going, and will be far into the future.
That is to say, radioactive pollution will continue to pour into the oceanic, hemispheric and planetary environment with predictably negative, but unknown, effects on the health and DNA of all life forms in the biosphere.
There�s karmic irony here. The U.S. dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan, then used its political influence and propaganda prowess to sell the country nuclear power. Its corporations supplied the faulty reactors that melted down at Fukushima. Now, it is on the front line of receiving the fallout in the form of ongoing oceanic and atmospheric pollution carried eastward by winds and currents.
Faith-Based Nuclear Policy
Despite the obvious take-home lesson � i.e., that every nuclear facility, wherever its geographic location, constitutes a danger to the entire planet, and should be treated as such by the 'international community' � a New Nuclear Weapons race and a New Nuclear Power race are both currently in progress.
He began his presidency with the celebrated April 5, 2009 Prague Speech in which he stated ��clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons�.� In practice Obama has embraced an �all of the above� energy policy including heavy investments in new reactor construction and design development.
The recipient of an apparently aspirational Nobel Peace Prize has also committed a projected $1 trillion dollars over the coming decades to upgrading America�s nuclear weapons arsenal. https://www.revealnews.org/article/new-mexico-thrives-on-nuclear-bomb-despite-us-pledge-to-reduce-arsenal/
The program includes new ballistic missiles, a new manned bomber and a fleet of new missile-launching submarines. Termed � with no apparent sense of irony ��the life-extension program,� the plans clearly violate U.S. obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In the domain of nuclear weaponry�s Siamese twin nuclear energy, there are those opinion-maker luminaries like James Hansen, James Lovelock, Stewart Brand, Bill Gates and George Monbiot who advocate for nuclear energy as a �carbon-free solution to climate change.� Never mind that - as Stanford scientist Mark Jacobsen and his associates, as well as others, have conclusively shown - the entire nuclear fuel chain from mine to waste dump is more carbon intensive than wind and solar put together. Their work shows a transition to renewables is totally possible�without nuclear energy. http://thesolutionsproject.org/
The Atomic Church of the Last Gasp
Last week, alarmed at the failure of their repeated attempts to go through �proper channels,� seven engineers at America�s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) � which President Obama himself has dubbed in 2007 �a moribund agency� � filed a petition as private citizens. They stated that they have identified a long-undiscovered electrical flaw common to virtually all U.S. nuclear plants that could prevent cooling and allow a meltdown to occur. Their petition asks that the NRC mandate that plant operators either fix the problem or shut down the reactors.
http://commondreams.org/views/2016/03/10/7-top-nrc-experts-break-ranks-warn-critical-danger-aging-nuke-plants
But the New Nuclearists avoid coming to terms with the risks and failures of the existing world fleet of aging, ill-designed reactors. They believe � without operational proof-of-concept � in a pie-in-the-sky, perpetually not-yet-but-soon-to-be-born generation of �new, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).� They will consume and eliminate existing nuclear waste and be so �inherently safe� you can bury them in your back yard. Any day now.
The blind faith with which latter-day nuclear advocates approach the issues of human, ecological and economic risk associated with nuclear technologies, reminds one of the Melanesian millenarian movement called �cargo cults,� in which indigenous tribes, following charismatic figures, built wooden aircraft replicas on mountain tops in the vain hopes � despite repeated failures � to lure down the western cargo planes loaded with commodities they saw flying overhead.
Or, if the definition of �insanity� is: �persisting in behavior which consistently fails,� neo-nuclearism is clearly a form of collective insanity � atomic psychosis.
Recovering from Nuclear Delusion
The 20th century �nuclear dream� of global full-spectrum dominance and energy too cheap to meter has become a 21st century nightmare. It is time to wake up. As retired top U.S. energy administrator S. David Freeman puts it in a recent interview, �We have to kill nuclear power before it kills us.�
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1R4jc2wlGs
The facts of the failure of the nuclear dream are there, for any who are not blinded by ideology or self-interest to see: in addition to its history of totalitarianism, incompetence and global disasters, nuclear energy deployment is plagued by public opposition, investor disinterest, consistently mounting cost and schedule over-runs and dependence on dwindling water supplies. Energy consultant Amory Lovins sees nuclear energy �dying a slow death from an overdose of market forces.� Futurist Jeremy Rifkin agrees, �From a business perspective, its dead.�
Then there�s the energy-weapons-waste connection, the real �nuclear triad.� Not only are nuclear energy and weapons production joined at the hip from birth, but they share a dysfunctional excretory system � of which more below.
Nine Realities of which Nuclear Millenarians Dare Not Speak
Those who advocate for nuclear energy as a response to climate change, or for new nuclear weapons in pursuit of �national security,� must ignore or deny an overwhelming burden of facts from the history and legacy of these nuclear technologies so far.
Here are just a few:
Genocidal Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
� Uranium mining and the deadly radioactive wastes left behind continue to have devastating effects on Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians. In the U.S., thousands of abandoned open pit uranium mines contaminate drinking and irrigation water and the air breathed by tribes across the Great Planes and the Four Corners Area.
� Nuclear weapons testing has done lasting genetic and environmental damage to Pacific Islanders in the Marshall Islands and Polynesia.
Nuclear Disasters
The Guardian lists and ranks 33 serious incidents and accidents at nuclear power stations since the first one was recorded in 1952. Of those, six happened in the US, five in Japan and three apiece in the UK and Russia. That�s an average of nearly 5 per decade.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/14/nuclear-power-plant-accidents-list-rank#data
But a report by Cornell University researchers Spencer Wheatley, Benjamin Sovacool, Didier Sornette entitled Of Disasters and Dragon Kings: A Statistical Analysis of Nuclear Power Incidents & Accidents has a database of 174 accidents worldwide since 1946.
They rate the accidents in 2013 dollars and define an accident as �an unintentional incident or event at a nuclear energy facility that led to either one death (or more) or at least $50,000 in property damage.�
They conclude
In fact, the damage of the largest event (Fukushima; March, 2011) is equal to 60 percent of the total damage of all 174 accidents in our database since 1946. In dollar losses we compute a 50% chance that (i) a Fukushima event (or larger) occurs in the next 50 years, (ii) a Chernobyl event (or larger) occurs in the next 27 years and (iii) a TMI event (or larger) occurs in the next 10 years. [emphasis added]
http://arxiv.org/abs/1504.02380
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/536886/the-chances-of-another-chernobyl-before-2050-50-say-safety-specialists/
US Nuclear Meltdowns
There have been 8 nuclear meltdowns so far in the U.S. Contrary to popular belief, the meltdown at Three Mile Island was not the worst. That dubious honor goes to the little-reported July 12, 1959 meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory located a couple of miles from the city of Simi Valley and only about 30 miles north of Los Angeles. The radioactive contamination of the surrounding communities and environment from that event have yet to be fully acknowledged or dealt with. One of the companies involved was Southern California Edison, the major owner of San Onofre.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/20975-remembering-rocketdyne-discussing-americas-worst-nuclear-meltdown-not-three-mile-island-with-erin-brockovich
Nuclear Weapons Incidents
As part of his research for his book on the nuclear arms race, Command and Control � Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Eric Schlosser used the Freedom of Information Act to discover that at least 700 "significant" accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968 alone. The Business Insider has a useful interactive site based on Rudolph Herzog�s A Short History of Nuclear Folly on which you can track 32 nuclear weapons accidents since 1950.
http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-broken-arrow-nuclear-accidents-2013-5
In its Status of World Nuclear Forces, the Federation of American Scientists reports the existence of
approximately 15,350 warheads as of early-2016. Of these, more than 10,000 are in the military stockpiles (the rest are awaiting dismantlement), of which almost 4,200 warheads are deployed with operational forces, of which nearly 1,800 US, Russian, British and French warheads are on high alert, ready for use on short notice.
Approximately 93 percent of all nuclear warheads are owned by Russia and the United States who each have roughly 4,500-4,700 warheads in their military stockpiles. http://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/
Former U.S. Sec. of Defense, William J. Perry says the situation is even worse:
�Today we still have over 20 thousand real world nuclear weapons. Enough to blow up everybody on the planet several times over. Those weapons pose the immediate problem of a danger of terrorism, the immediate problem of the possibility of nuclear war.
�The antagonism between Russia and the United States has reached a point now where I believe we are on the brink of a new nuclear arms race. It breaks my heart.
�Today, the danger of a nuclear catastrophe is actually higher than it was during the cold war. Let me say that again��
http://www.planetarianperspectives.net/?p=2741
The Documented Human Death Toll From Chernobyl
In 2013, the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment was published by the New York Academy of Sciences. Its lead author was the celebrated Russian biologist Dr. Alexey Yablokov, former environmental advisor to the Russian president.
Based on some 5,000 health data, radiological surveys and scientific reports in several languages, it concludes based on records now available, 985,000 people died, mainly of cancer, as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl accident between when the accident occurred and 2004. It projects that more deaths will continue follow.
It blows away the specious claim by the International Atomic Energy Agency � whose mission is to promote nuclear energy - that the expected death toll from the Chernobyl accident will be 4,000. The book shows that the IAEA is seriously under-estimating, in the extreme, the casualties of Chernobyl � good reason to doubt its pronouncements on Fukushima.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-book-concludes-chernobyl-death-toll-985-000-mostly-from-cancer/20908
Health Impacts on U.S. Nuclear Workers
Irradiated, a December, 2015 McClatchy investigative report by Bob Hotakainen, Lindsay Wise, Frank Matt and Samantha Ehlinger, reveals that 70 years of U.S. atomic weaponry production has so far left at least 33,480 Americans dead, with more to come. http://media.mcclatchydc.com/static/features/irradiated/
A recent study by an international team of nine researchers looked at 308,297 workers in the nuclear industry from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of 66,632 known deaths by the end of the study, 17,957 were due to solid cancers. The authors report �the risk per unit of radiation dose for cancer among radiation workers was similar to estimates derived from studies of Japanese atomic bomb survivors.� They conclude that their results �suggest a linear increase in the rate of cancer with increasing radiation exposure.� Translation: There is no �safe� dose of nuclear radiation. http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h5359
Environmental & Biological Impacts of Nuclear Disasters
For years, evolutionary biologist Dr. Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, has been studying the impacts of both the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters on animals and plants in the contaminated regions.
Studies published by Mousseau and Anders M�ller of the Universit� Paris-Sud, and their collaborators detail the effects of ionizing radiation on pine trees and birds and small animals in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. "When you look for these effects, you find them," says Mousseau.
He adds that, mirroring Chernobyl results, "A growing body of empirical results from studies of birds, monkeys, butterflies, and other insects suggests that some species have been significantly impacted by the radioactive releases related to the Fukushima disaster,"
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-biological-effects-fukushima-insects-animals.html#jCp
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-viewing-fukushima-cold-chernobyl.html#jCp
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-viewing-fukushima-cold-chernobyl.html#nRlv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xnj5QYBzLs
DNA and Genetic Damage from DU weapons
U.S. wars in Former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and perhaps in other places as well, have seen the extensive use of so-called �depleted uranium� ammunition -uranium armor penetrators. The super hard metal projectiles, fired from tanks and aircraft, can pierce the armor of tanks and combat vehicles, volatizing into deadly toxic particles that enter the bodies of all combatants and members of the surrounding populations. U.S. and NATO soldiers returning from the wars sicken and contaminate their loved ones. The populations forced to live in permanently contaminated former battle zones suffer chronic health problems and wide-spread genetic deformities that will be passed down through the generations.
http://www.bollyn.com/depleted-uranium/
https://stgvisie.home.xs4all.nl/PentagonPoison.html
Waste Storage From Here to Eternity
An Australian study estimates there are 390,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in the world, and nearly 10 million cubic meters of intermediate-level waste � all of it produced from nuclear power generation. That amount is growing by approximately 10,000 tons annually. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-15/sa-nuclear-waste-dump-to-meet-'global-need'-recommended/7167412
It is produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining and enrichment, to reactor operation and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
Despite over seven decades of trying, no proven location or method of keeping the waste isolated from the environment has yet been found.
According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, by the middle of 2015, 30 countries worldwide were operating 438 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and 67 new nuclear plants were under construction in 15 countries. http://www.nei.org/Knowledge-Center/Nuclear-Statistics/World-Statistics
The inevitable decommissioning of the aging world reactor fleet will create huge amounts of radioactive wastes. Once they are closed down, most of the world's nuclear sites will require monitoring and protection for centuries. Wherever and however it is eventually stored, most of the waste will remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years � longer than civilization has yet existed.
I rest my case.
NeoNuclearists are entitled to their own opinions�but not to their own facts.
======
James Heddle co-directs EON � the Ecological Options Network. He is currently at work on a new documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection
http://www.shutdowndoc.tv/
By James Heddle
�Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But everyone is not entitled to their own facts.� - Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynahan
Fallout as Blowback
As the 5-year anniversary rolls around it�s clear to all who care to notice that the Fukushima triple meltdown nuclear disaster is still not �under control� - as Prime Minister Abe claimed to the Olympic Committee in his successful bid to host the coming 2020 Games - but is still on-going, and will be far into the future.
That is to say, radioactive pollution will continue to pour into the oceanic, hemispheric and planetary environment with predictably negative, but unknown, effects on the health and DNA of all life forms in the biosphere.
There�s karmic irony here. The U.S. dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan, then used its political influence and propaganda prowess to sell the country nuclear power. Its corporations supplied the faulty reactors that melted down at Fukushima. Now, it is on the front line of receiving the fallout in the form of ongoing oceanic and atmospheric pollution carried eastward by winds and currents.
Faith-Based Nuclear Policy
Despite the obvious take-home lesson � i.e., that every nuclear facility, wherever its geographic location, constitutes a danger to the entire planet, and should be treated as such by the 'international community' � a New Nuclear Weapons race and a New Nuclear Power race are both currently in progress.
He began his presidency with the celebrated April 5, 2009 Prague Speech in which he stated ��clearly and with conviction America's commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons�.� In practice Obama has embraced an �all of the above� energy policy including heavy investments in new reactor construction and design development.
The recipient of an apparently aspirational Nobel Peace Prize has also committed a projected $1 trillion dollars over the coming decades to upgrading America�s nuclear weapons arsenal. https://www.revealnews.org/article/new-mexico-thrives-on-nuclear-bomb-despite-us-pledge-to-reduce-arsenal/
The program includes new ballistic missiles, a new manned bomber and a fleet of new missile-launching submarines. Termed � with no apparent sense of irony ��the life-extension program,� the plans clearly violate U.S. obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In the domain of nuclear weaponry�s Siamese twin nuclear energy, there are those opinion-maker luminaries like James Hansen, James Lovelock, Stewart Brand, Bill Gates and George Monbiot who advocate for nuclear energy as a �carbon-free solution to climate change.� Never mind that - as Stanford scientist Mark Jacobsen and his associates, as well as others, have conclusively shown - the entire nuclear fuel chain from mine to waste dump is more carbon intensive than wind and solar put together. Their work shows a transition to renewables is totally possible�without nuclear energy. http://thesolutionsproject.org/
The Atomic Church of the Last Gasp
Last week, alarmed at the failure of their repeated attempts to go through �proper channels,� seven engineers at America�s Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) � which President Obama himself has dubbed in 2007 �a moribund agency� � filed a petition as private citizens. They stated that they have identified a long-undiscovered electrical flaw common to virtually all U.S. nuclear plants that could prevent cooling and allow a meltdown to occur. Their petition asks that the NRC mandate that plant operators either fix the problem or shut down the reactors.
http://commondreams.org/views/2016/03/10/7-top-nrc-experts-break-ranks-warn-critical-danger-aging-nuke-plants
But the New Nuclearists avoid coming to terms with the risks and failures of the existing world fleet of aging, ill-designed reactors. They believe � without operational proof-of-concept � in a pie-in-the-sky, perpetually not-yet-but-soon-to-be-born generation of �new, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).� They will consume and eliminate existing nuclear waste and be so �inherently safe� you can bury them in your back yard. Any day now.
The blind faith with which latter-day nuclear advocates approach the issues of human, ecological and economic risk associated with nuclear technologies, reminds one of the Melanesian millenarian movement called �cargo cults,� in which indigenous tribes, following charismatic figures, built wooden aircraft replicas on mountain tops in the vain hopes � despite repeated failures � to lure down the western cargo planes loaded with commodities they saw flying overhead.
Or, if the definition of �insanity� is: �persisting in behavior which consistently fails,� neo-nuclearism is clearly a form of collective insanity � atomic psychosis.
Recovering from Nuclear Delusion
The 20th century �nuclear dream� of global full-spectrum dominance and energy too cheap to meter has become a 21st century nightmare. It is time to wake up. As retired top U.S. energy administrator S. David Freeman puts it in a recent interview, �We have to kill nuclear power before it kills us.�
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1R4jc2wlGs
The facts of the failure of the nuclear dream are there, for any who are not blinded by ideology or self-interest to see: in addition to its history of totalitarianism, incompetence and global disasters, nuclear energy deployment is plagued by public opposition, investor disinterest, consistently mounting cost and schedule over-runs and dependence on dwindling water supplies. Energy consultant Amory Lovins sees nuclear energy �dying a slow death from an overdose of market forces.� Futurist Jeremy Rifkin agrees, �From a business perspective, its dead.�
Then there�s the energy-weapons-waste connection, the real �nuclear triad.� Not only are nuclear energy and weapons production joined at the hip from birth, but they share a dysfunctional excretory system � of which more below.
Nine Realities of which Nuclear Millenarians Dare Not Speak
Those who advocate for nuclear energy as a response to climate change, or for new nuclear weapons in pursuit of �national security,� must ignore or deny an overwhelming burden of facts from the history and legacy of these nuclear technologies so far.
Here are just a few:
Genocidal Impacts on Indigenous Peoples
� Uranium mining and the deadly radioactive wastes left behind continue to have devastating effects on Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians. In the U.S., thousands of abandoned open pit uranium mines contaminate drinking and irrigation water and the air breathed by tribes across the Great Planes and the Four Corners Area.
� Nuclear weapons testing has done lasting genetic and environmental damage to Pacific Islanders in the Marshall Islands and Polynesia.
Nuclear Disasters
The Guardian lists and ranks 33 serious incidents and accidents at nuclear power stations since the first one was recorded in 1952. Of those, six happened in the US, five in Japan and three apiece in the UK and Russia. That�s an average of nearly 5 per decade.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/mar/14/nuclear-power-plant-accidents-list-rank#data
But a report by Cornell University researchers Spencer Wheatley, Benjamin Sovacool, Didier Sornette entitled Of Disasters and Dragon Kings: A Statistical Analysis of Nuclear Power Incidents & Accidents has a database of 174 accidents worldwide since 1946.
They rate the accidents in 2013 dollars and define an accident as �an unintentional incident or event at a nuclear energy facility that led to either one death (or more) or at least $50,000 in property damage.�
They conclude
In fact, the damage of the largest event (Fukushima; March, 2011) is equal to 60 percent of the total damage of all 174 accidents in our database since 1946. In dollar losses we compute a 50% chance that (i) a Fukushima event (or larger) occurs in the next 50 years, (ii) a Chernobyl event (or larger) occurs in the next 27 years and (iii) a TMI event (or larger) occurs in the next 10 years. [emphasis added]
http://arxiv.org/abs/1504.02380
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/536886/the-chances-of-another-chernobyl-before-2050-50-say-safety-specialists/
US Nuclear Meltdowns
There have been 8 nuclear meltdowns so far in the U.S. Contrary to popular belief, the meltdown at Three Mile Island was not the worst. That dubious honor goes to the little-reported July 12, 1959 meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory located a couple of miles from the city of Simi Valley and only about 30 miles north of Los Angeles. The radioactive contamination of the surrounding communities and environment from that event have yet to be fully acknowledged or dealt with. One of the companies involved was Southern California Edison, the major owner of San Onofre.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/20975-remembering-rocketdyne-discussing-americas-worst-nuclear-meltdown-not-three-mile-island-with-erin-brockovich
Nuclear Weapons Incidents
As part of his research for his book on the nuclear arms race, Command and Control � Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety, Eric Schlosser used the Freedom of Information Act to discover that at least 700 "significant" accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968 alone. The Business Insider has a useful interactive site based on Rudolph Herzog�s A Short History of Nuclear Folly on which you can track 32 nuclear weapons accidents since 1950.
http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-broken-arrow-nuclear-accidents-2013-5
In its Status of World Nuclear Forces, the Federation of American Scientists reports the existence of
approximately 15,350 warheads as of early-2016. Of these, more than 10,000 are in the military stockpiles (the rest are awaiting dismantlement), of which almost 4,200 warheads are deployed with operational forces, of which nearly 1,800 US, Russian, British and French warheads are on high alert, ready for use on short notice.
Approximately 93 percent of all nuclear warheads are owned by Russia and the United States who each have roughly 4,500-4,700 warheads in their military stockpiles. http://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/
Former U.S. Sec. of Defense, William J. Perry says the situation is even worse:
�Today we still have over 20 thousand real world nuclear weapons. Enough to blow up everybody on the planet several times over. Those weapons pose the immediate problem of a danger of terrorism, the immediate problem of the possibility of nuclear war.
�The antagonism between Russia and the United States has reached a point now where I believe we are on the brink of a new nuclear arms race. It breaks my heart.
�Today, the danger of a nuclear catastrophe is actually higher than it was during the cold war. Let me say that again��
http://www.planetarianperspectives.net/?p=2741
The Documented Human Death Toll From Chernobyl
In 2013, the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment was published by the New York Academy of Sciences. Its lead author was the celebrated Russian biologist Dr. Alexey Yablokov, former environmental advisor to the Russian president.
Based on some 5,000 health data, radiological surveys and scientific reports in several languages, it concludes based on records now available, 985,000 people died, mainly of cancer, as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl accident between when the accident occurred and 2004. It projects that more deaths will continue follow.
It blows away the specious claim by the International Atomic Energy Agency � whose mission is to promote nuclear energy - that the expected death toll from the Chernobyl accident will be 4,000. The book shows that the IAEA is seriously under-estimating, in the extreme, the casualties of Chernobyl � good reason to doubt its pronouncements on Fukushima.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/new-book-concludes-chernobyl-death-toll-985-000-mostly-from-cancer/20908
Health Impacts on U.S. Nuclear Workers
Irradiated, a December, 2015 McClatchy investigative report by Bob Hotakainen, Lindsay Wise, Frank Matt and Samantha Ehlinger, reveals that 70 years of U.S. atomic weaponry production has so far left at least 33,480 Americans dead, with more to come. http://media.mcclatchydc.com/static/features/irradiated/
A recent study by an international team of nine researchers looked at 308,297 workers in the nuclear industry from France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of 66,632 known deaths by the end of the study, 17,957 were due to solid cancers. The authors report �the risk per unit of radiation dose for cancer among radiation workers was similar to estimates derived from studies of Japanese atomic bomb survivors.� They conclude that their results �suggest a linear increase in the rate of cancer with increasing radiation exposure.� Translation: There is no �safe� dose of nuclear radiation. http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h5359
Environmental & Biological Impacts of Nuclear Disasters
For years, evolutionary biologist Dr. Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, has been studying the impacts of both the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters on animals and plants in the contaminated regions.
Studies published by Mousseau and Anders M�ller of the Universit� Paris-Sud, and their collaborators detail the effects of ionizing radiation on pine trees and birds and small animals in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. "When you look for these effects, you find them," says Mousseau.
He adds that, mirroring Chernobyl results, "A growing body of empirical results from studies of birds, monkeys, butterflies, and other insects suggests that some species have been significantly impacted by the radioactive releases related to the Fukushima disaster,"
http://phys.org/news/2014-08-biological-effects-fukushima-insects-animals.html#jCp
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-viewing-fukushima-cold-chernobyl.html#jCp
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-viewing-fukushima-cold-chernobyl.html#nRlv
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xnj5QYBzLs
DNA and Genetic Damage from DU weapons
U.S. wars in Former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and perhaps in other places as well, have seen the extensive use of so-called �depleted uranium� ammunition -uranium armor penetrators. The super hard metal projectiles, fired from tanks and aircraft, can pierce the armor of tanks and combat vehicles, volatizing into deadly toxic particles that enter the bodies of all combatants and members of the surrounding populations. U.S. and NATO soldiers returning from the wars sicken and contaminate their loved ones. The populations forced to live in permanently contaminated former battle zones suffer chronic health problems and wide-spread genetic deformities that will be passed down through the generations.
http://www.bollyn.com/depleted-uranium/
https://stgvisie.home.xs4all.nl/PentagonPoison.html
Waste Storage From Here to Eternity
An Australian study estimates there are 390,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in the world, and nearly 10 million cubic meters of intermediate-level waste � all of it produced from nuclear power generation. That amount is growing by approximately 10,000 tons annually. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-15/sa-nuclear-waste-dump-to-meet-'global-need'-recommended/7167412
It is produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel chain, from uranium mining and enrichment, to reactor operation and the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
Despite over seven decades of trying, no proven location or method of keeping the waste isolated from the environment has yet been found.
According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, by the middle of 2015, 30 countries worldwide were operating 438 nuclear reactors for electricity generation and 67 new nuclear plants were under construction in 15 countries. http://www.nei.org/Knowledge-Center/Nuclear-Statistics/World-Statistics
The inevitable decommissioning of the aging world reactor fleet will create huge amounts of radioactive wastes. Once they are closed down, most of the world's nuclear sites will require monitoring and protection for centuries. Wherever and however it is eventually stored, most of the waste will remain hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years � longer than civilization has yet existed.
I rest my case.
NeoNuclearists are entitled to their own opinions�but not to their own facts.
======
James Heddle co-directs EON � the Ecological Options Network. He is currently at work on a new documentary SHUTDOWN: The California-Fukushima Connection
http://www.shutdowndoc.tv/
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And about Israel: I would hope that people allow that country to determine the best course of action for itself, and not pour money into campaigns that the Israelis themselves do not want. For those who point to Bible prophecy: I respect religious opinions, but consider the story of Jonah: he finally warned Ninevah, they repented, he got mad that he had spent time in the whale, and with the example of the gourd it was pointed out that sometimes forgiveness is given for repentance. Those prophecies are supposed to point to a good direction, not just give a blanket punishment, but prophecies may be self-fulfilling with the kind of meddling that Adelson is doing.
We the People just won't buy what they are selling. Let them waste their money. Don't vote republican on any level.
My post was to anybody who might give Adelson an excuse for his meddling. At one time, any foreign meddling in an American election was a serious offense; a foreign corporation could lose their licenses to do business in the United States. I wonder where those laws went?
This last year, I've been seeing loads of out-of-state license plates, all good cars. Most people change their license if they are moving here, so I assume these are all the out-of-state people coming to Ohio to pay people to vote Republican. Most people don't buy it, but all those out-of-state plates prove they are trying.
Yall benefited from the bail-out of GM I believe, so I hope many, many more Ohioans will also vote Dem. It is going to be a trying time, for since you are THE swing state, you will be bombarded with negative adds. STAY STRONG
Isn't that typical for the rich jerks. It is too bad that the people need the job, for I would LOVE to see them all march out and leave him stranded, high and dry with nobody to run his damn casino.
Of course, he does nothing for the community, People like him just take, take, take. they only give when they are certain to get what they want in return. A pox on him
I've been wondering if and how all this money that's flowing so freely is being written off. Of course when you make that much money, the IRS turns a blind eye. But if $1 of the Adelson, Koch, Rove, or other Super Pac money is being hidden or written off, we are making up the difference. Isn't that the other aspect of anonymous donations?
Not even social security will you find there and their equilivent of medicaid was gutted in the 1980's. Their master plan calls for a social security program to increase domestic consumption but it is a longer term plan,not immediate.
This Mr Adelson...Don't know him of course but I can only assume he is not really considering himself a citizen with US interests at heart but a global citizen here to use the US for all it is worth..very.sim iliar to Reupert Murdouch.
Their interest is to use the US for personal financial interest.
When the US is no longer at the top of the financial heap, his heirs by my take will then be Chinese citizens using that place for their personal gain. Similar to Reupert and his Chinese wife, really they care not about what country they are in or meddling in...their concern is all about personal profit.
The amounts of money now being donated to campaigns compared to the amounts of money at stake for guys like this is minuscule.
Keep in mind the ramifications of citizens united are just now being felt....it is just starting..
I wonder why they do not just start paying people to vote a certain way....would that not also be a exercise of free speech...since money is speech by their determination.
Your ward goes this way...1k each to each voter...why not?
Just imagine what Social Security and Medicare/Medica id could do with that money. Think of all the people it could help. And then I look at people like Cheney, Rove, Murdoch and this clown, Adelson... it puts me somewhere between rage and nausea.
"..There are no "undecided" voters any more. More crap on tv is not going to sway people one way or another."
Never over-under-esti mate the ignorance of the American public! Of course money can, will and does, buy elections, over the TV.
You may be correct that there are no undecided voters left.......in THE PRESIDENTIAL part of the election,... but
all that money can make a HUGE difference in the CONGRESSIONAL election.
I doubt the democrats will have a lot of money, and most people don't pay much attention to representatives and senators therefor if Adelson's money is used to throw a lot of dirt at the democratic candidates, it can make a BIG difference
So unless democrats really work hard for their candidates, they will have little chance of getting more Dems in the house.
This nasty SOB may be able to determine who wins this election, because of all his money.
We are certainly not a democracy any longer. He MIGHT not be able to unseat the president he hates. But his filthy money could destroy GOOD law makers.
....Contrary to belief....they DO exist.
He proves that no matter HOW much money some people have they want STILL MORE. And they want the middle class to pay the taxes, they want to avoid. He is sickening
And don't forget to volunteer to work with your local political group. You don't have to have money to get involved. And your involvement may be just the thing that turns an election around. This money is being used not only to combat President Obama, but all the way down to the local level. You can bet that Rove knows who's running in every district in the country and will bring his money to bear against any candidate he thinks is vulnerable.
The only way we can beat the money is with bodies - lots and lots of bodies.
It's men like Adelson who make the world an ugly place. If he continues, it will probably also be uninhabitable, because I guarantee to you that if the Rethugs win up and down the line, the biggest casualty will be the environment.
It could come from China!...We simply have NO idea. We do not have elections anymore. We have AUCTIONS.
And the winner is???.....The highest bidder. How sickening, and we have the NERVE to tell other countries, how to run elections and build democracy??
I meant to give you a negative not a positive vote for your foolish remark. Adelson hates America, he is a Zionist who would rather have worn the military uniform of Israel rather than the American one he wore.
I can't believe I spent some money at his Venetian Casino in Las Vegas when I was there recently.
I would hope he has a better use for 30 million dollars than to point and shame;thus throwing himself into the shame/blame game, the Republicans favorite form of lying which works well in this imbecilac country.I wish I could stop these lunatics,but my bank account isn`t big enough.
Frankly, I think there is a good chance that that may happen and that the Republican office-holders and wannabes will be swept away in a spew of voter vomit.
Billionaire (who owns a piece of everything) -
lots of ads, paid into big media -
owned by billionaires (who make profit on the ads) -
lots of ads, paid into big media - ...
They can't lose on this, and they will still have all their money in the end!
Of course that applies to the Middle East brand of Mormonism, another "M" cult absolutely devoted to denial of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. Masons too.. Interesting, the "Shriners" with their Islamic symbolism, swords and red fez costumes?
But the mills of prophecy grind along, with the Saudis deepening their ties with China, closer to the long feared oil for nuclear missiles transaction. Mr. Adelson would show much greater discernment were he and Mr. Winn et al able to grasp the need for American transport policy re-orientation as key element in defusing the Middle East noose around America's neck. It's about Petrodollars, stupid!
The scriptural warnings about Jerusalem as stumbling block for the nations do not necessarily include America, but as things stand, it seems likely. Adelson should read "The Blood Of The Moon" and counsel Mitt Romney on the prophetic and spiritual forces at play. America's relationship with Israel must be considered, not overplayed to bad end.
Could Jastrow's "The War And The Bagdhad Railway" scheme offer engineering solution to Palestinian resettlement and Islamic goals of regional unity, hold Israel harmless, and stifle relentless moves to cataclysm?
I think that God is intelligent, don't you?
I also always felt that's why Adelson vigorously solicited the Chinese to build casinos in their territory. He has a delusion that the Chinese government will let him take all his money there and they will protect him and his money.
I predicted years ago that Adelson would eventually take his bad ideas and his money and head for Macau to live permanently just not to pay a few percent of taxes.
Either human beings have rights or they don't. If you believe some group of humans identified by their ethnicity or religion do not have human rights, then you are in violation of the UN Convention Against Genocide and the Universal Convention on Human Rights. Such beliefs put Adelson in the company with Nazis and other avowed racist groups. I'm sure he does not give a damn.
The truth is that Israel would be a lot safer and better off with a viable and healthy Palestinian state.
I agree with Nick Neuaur (Ted Conference speaker who's speach isn't included because of what he had to say)that the middle class creates jobs because they can spend. Nick said he can buy 3 cars but the middle class can buy 3,000.
Adleson is in this for short term gain because when the middle class can't afford to gamble he's not going to make any more money.
Europe and America is:
No money in politics
No death penalty
No guns
universal healthcare
W O W what a difference that makes.
President Roosevelt in a message to Congress in 1938:
"A democratic society is in danger if people tolerate private powers...
Corporations, Adelson/Maher, AIPAC
...to an extent where these powers are
more powerful than the democratical state
itself.
That is the essence of fascism."
And it is hard to tell if the top dems are so out of touch but are actually repugs in dems clothing. Can anyone explain the difference between cheney and Obama, who seems to enjoy taking out civilians and supports big oil.
Adelson would prefer Romney because his authoritarian mindset is deeper than Obama's, but he can buy either one.
Notice how suddenly, after a few years, there are headlines about an investigation into "Fast and Furious?" And suddenly there are stories steering "The Conversation" into areas where things might have gone slightly better? I love Dennis Kucinich, who said that as much money as Solyndria lost, it lost much less than any nuclear power plant commonly loses, and is covered up. But does Dennis make headlines?
I NEVER click on any news story that is a (not so hidden) smear tactic. Sure there were some mistakes in Obama's Presidency, but in my entire lifetime (late 50s) there has NEVER been a President who has tried to achieve ANY healthcare package that would help young adults and middle class; and rarely a President who tried to help common people at all (let's see, the ones who did were all Democrats). Clean energy is still being talked about, and it wouldn't even be in "The Conversation" with Repugs running the country.
As far as being bought, Pres. Obama has tried to steer the ship; he has reduced and brought home forces from overseas. If it were Romney, these tired forces would be simply gearing up for Iran. You can talk to Pres. Obama; enough people telling him that Democrats need to be Democrats and he listens, but would you ever in your life get a Republican to listen to the needs of anybody who earns less than $250,000 a year?
Let's see - whose interests do you think a Pres. Romney would support? Sheldon "Mr. Greed" Adelson or the other 299 million Americans in the middle and "working" class? Hmmmm
If you care about the future of our country and our children, I'd suggest you don't vote for Sheldon Adelson (sorry - I mean, Mitt Romney).
...and so it goes, the Republicans are pitted against the Democrats and their supporters against each other and above the fray are the fat cats, Democrat and Republican alike, stuffing their pockets and grabbing power while we fight little battles amongst ourselves, trying to extinguish the little fires they set to divert us while the wholes system burns. Good night and good luck.
All I can toss into pot concerns the auctioning of our democracy.
It is a "silent" auction and we aren't invited.
The folks who own the construction companies contribute to Republicans, the road construction worker unions contribute to Democrats. They both lobby for crappy roads we have to replace every ten years. Good for their companies and jobs, bad for those of us who hate orange barrels.
Both sides buy influence.
Live with it, use it or figure out a way to fix it.
They're all traitors, Art947. These guys claim to be so "religious" and so "patriotic", but they're just the opposite. The Southern Christians and disparate hate groups despise Jews, Catholics, and Mormons, but they REALLY despise Blacks, Hispanics and any other people of color. So they're in. The other groups - regular conservatives, neo-conservativ es, the super-rich, libertarians, bankers, and corporations ("are people too") - who, incidentally, consider the Southern Christians and hate groups to be useful tools, manage to hold this unholy cabal together. So they're in.
Adelson and the others are awash with money. Shame of it is, the lemmings will follow them right into the sea. That's what we're up against.