Fukushima Is Hazardous for Sonoma County
Our public health system was intended to protect everyone, especially children, from illness, toxins and hazards. So why hasn’t the county public health department alerted parents about the radiation from Fukushima, and informed them about some simple steps which help minimize harm? (See box.)
The first peer-reviewed study of Fukushima appeared in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. Headlined “U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout,” the authors estimate 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns, which is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under 12 months old.
Harvey Wasserman reported 30 months after the tsunami that massive quantities of heavily contaminated water are pouring into the Pacific Ocean, dousing workers along the way. Hundreds of huge, flimsy tanks still leak untold tons of highly radioactive fluids. Unit #4, with over 1,300 fuel rods, and 400 tons of extremely radioactive material, contains radioactivity comparable to 14,000 Hiroshima bombs. http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/11073 Called "a bathtub on the roof" by CNN anchor Jon King, the damaged pool is four stories from the ground in a building tilted after the earthquake and at least one hydrogen explosion. It’s not a question of if, but when it will crash down. http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-devil-STILL-has-us-dea-by-Harvey-Wasserman-120807-539.html
But that is just the beginning. The Daiichi complex in Fukushima had a total of 1760 metric tons of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site in 2012, according to Tepco. That is ten times the 180 tons in the Chernobyl reactors when the accident occurred in 1986, which was six times the 30-ton core melt at Three Mile Island in 1979. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/20-0
All General Electric’s Mark I design includes waste storage pools 100 above the reactor so that fuel rods can be submerged immediately after being removed from the core. But in Fukushima those pools were lost and that radiation poured directly into the atmosphere. There are 23 G.E. reactors of this flawed design in the US and more around the world. http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/11073
Chris Canine, another nuclear expert, says, “The entire site at Fukushima will be uninhabitable and unworkable because of the dose rate coming from this pile of fuel.” He adds “There should be hundreds or thousands of people working furiously every day to get the buildings fortified and the fuel moved.”
http://enenews.com/former-fukushima-daiichi-worker-i-believe-the-country-will-be-evacuated-if-the-no-4-spent-fuel-pool-collapses-should-be-hundreds-or-thousands-of-people-working-furiously-every-day
Japan’s UN Ambassador Murata Mitsuhei wrote to the UN Secretary General: “It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No. 4 reactor…. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073743/Revealed-The-30-corporations-spent-lobbyists-taxes-debt-rose-economy-faltered.html#ixzz1gkgfuL3L
Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen and long-time antinuclear physician Helen Caldicott have both said that people should evacuate the Northern Hemisphere if one of the Fukushima fuel pools collapses.
Gundersen adds, “Cesium-137 is one of many radioactive isotopes that are created in a nuclear reactor. It has got a 30-year half life which means that it hangs around for 300 years and biologically it mimics potassium.... Cesium is called a muscle seeker.” Cesium-137 is easily absorbed into food crops, poisoning the entire food supply. http://www.fairewinds.com/content/fukushima-daiichi-truth-and-future In young children with rapidly developing muscles, especially their heart muscle, it can create something called Chernobyl Heart. Ibid
The cost of the Fukushima accident will easily go to a half a trillion US dollars over the next 20 years. That is enough to bring Japan to its knees. Ibid
Newly revealed tapes, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) failed to alert West Coast parents about the impact on infants of Fukushima. Officials calculated an annual radioactive iodine dose of 4 REM for infants under one year of age in California. Since child’s dose of 5 REM is immediate grounds for evacuation, we clearly haven’t been given the whole story! http://drsircus.com/medicine/iodine/iodine-rescue
In 2011, UC Berkley researchers found startling high levels of radioactive cesium in topsoil, ranging from 2.252 Bq/kg in Sonoma Valley to 2.737 Bq/kg in Sacramento. Engineer Marco Kaltofen at Polytechnic Institute (WPI) found levels over a hundred times higher. http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2011/11/the-detrimental-effects-of-the-fukushima-disaster-on-united-states-public-health-1315304.html
People given potassium iodide 8 hours prior to nuclear exposure are protected from absorbing radioactive iodine. However KI has some serious side effects so it isn’t recommended as a long term practice. Meanwhile, being iodine replete (from regular consumption of Lugol’s solution or Iodorol) is generally safe and will prevent absorption of radioactive iodine. http://drsircus.com/medicine/iodine/iodine-rescue
Read more about iodine at GoodSchoolFood.weebly.com
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Tepco, has said it may begin moving the fuel rods down from Unit #4 in November 2013. Because of Tepco’s incompetence to date, over 100,000 people signed Harvey Wasserman’s petition urging the creation of an international team of humankind's best scientific and engineering experts. This group would take over the operation and attempt to prevent the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe. (MoveOn.org and RootsAction.org)
If safety measures collapse any further, the radioactivity could make much of the northern hemisphere uninhabitable for hundreds of years. We saw the abandonment of the rich Ukrainian farmland and urban areas in Chernobyl, but this would be much larger since Fukushima has about 10 times more nuclear fuel than Chernobyl.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/20-0
Cores for three of the reactors are ‘missing,’ 11,000 fuel rods are scattered, and thousands of tons of contaminated water continue to pour into the Pacific. Reuters adds, “Massive amounts of radioactive fluids are accumulating at the Fukushima plant as Tepco floods reactor cores via a jerry-rigged system to keep melted uranium fuel rods cool and stable.”
Officials have a big problem: they must pump huge amounts of water onto the super-hot molten cores every day to prevent further meltdowns. "It's leaking like a sieve," Union of Concerned Scientist expert Ed Lyman told NBC News. For the past 900 days nearly 72,000 gallons of polluted water have flowed into the Pacific Ocean daily. "Right now, we have an emergency," said Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) taskforce. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-cirincione/fukushimas-song-of-ice-an_b_3763083.html
Our public health system was intended to protect everyone, especially children, from illness, toxins and hazards. So why hasn’t the county public health department alerted parents about the radiation from Fukushima, and informed them about some simple steps which help minimize harm? (See box.)
The first peer-reviewed study of Fukushima appeared in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. Headlined “U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout,” the authors estimate 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns, which is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under 12 months old.
Harvey Wasserman reported 30 months after the tsunami that massive quantities of heavily contaminated water are pouring into the Pacific Ocean, dousing workers along the way. Hundreds of huge, flimsy tanks still leak untold tons of highly radioactive fluids. Unit #4, with over 1,300 fuel rods, and 400 tons of extremely radioactive material, contains radioactivity comparable to 14,000 Hiroshima bombs. http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/11073 Called "a bathtub on the roof" by CNN anchor Jon King, the damaged pool is four stories from the ground in a building tilted after the earthquake and at least one hydrogen explosion. It’s not a question of if, but when it will crash down. http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-devil-STILL-has-us-dea-by-Harvey-Wasserman-120807-539.html
But that is just the beginning. The Daiichi complex in Fukushima had a total of 1760 metric tons of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site in 2012, according to Tepco. That is ten times the 180 tons in the Chernobyl reactors when the accident occurred in 1986, which was six times the 30-ton core melt at Three Mile Island in 1979. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/20-0
All General Electric’s Mark I design includes waste storage pools 100 above the reactor so that fuel rods can be submerged immediately after being removed from the core. But in Fukushima those pools were lost and that radiation poured directly into the atmosphere. There are 23 G.E. reactors of this flawed design in the US and more around the world. http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/11073
Chris Canine, another nuclear expert, says, “The entire site at Fukushima will be uninhabitable and unworkable because of the dose rate coming from this pile of fuel.” He adds “There should be hundreds or thousands of people working furiously every day to get the buildings fortified and the fuel moved.”
http://enenews.com/former-fukushima-daiichi-worker-i-believe-the-country-will-be-evacuated-if-the-no-4-spent-fuel-pool-collapses-should-be-hundreds-or-thousands-of-people-working-furiously-every-day
Japan’s UN Ambassador Murata Mitsuhei wrote to the UN Secretary General: “It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No. 4 reactor…. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073743/Revealed-The-30-corporations-spent-lobbyists-taxes-debt-rose-economy-faltered.html#ixzz1gkgfuL3L
Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen and long-time antinuclear physician Helen Caldicott have both said that people should evacuate the Northern Hemisphere if one of the Fukushima fuel pools collapses.
Gundersen adds, “Cesium-137 is one of many radioactive isotopes that are created in a nuclear reactor. It has got a 30-year half life which means that it hangs around for 300 years and biologically it mimics potassium.... Cesium is called a muscle seeker.” Cesium-137 is easily absorbed into food crops, poisoning the entire food supply. http://www.fairewinds.com/content/fukushima-daiichi-truth-and-future In young children with rapidly developing muscles, especially their heart muscle, it can create something called Chernobyl Heart. Ibid
The cost of the Fukushima accident will easily go to a half a trillion US dollars over the next 20 years. That is enough to bring Japan to its knees. Ibid
Newly revealed tapes, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) failed to alert West Coast parents about the impact on infants of Fukushima. Officials calculated an annual radioactive iodine dose of 4 REM for infants under one year of age in California. Since child’s dose of 5 REM is immediate grounds for evacuation, we clearly haven’t been given the whole story! http://drsircus.com/medicine/iodine/iodine-rescue
In 2011, UC Berkley researchers found startling high levels of radioactive cesium in topsoil, ranging from 2.252 Bq/kg in Sonoma Valley to 2.737 Bq/kg in Sacramento. Engineer Marco Kaltofen at Polytechnic Institute (WPI) found levels over a hundred times higher. http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2011/11/the-detrimental-effects-of-the-fukushima-disaster-on-united-states-public-health-1315304.html
People given potassium iodide 8 hours prior to nuclear exposure are protected from absorbing radioactive iodine. However KI has some serious side effects so it isn’t recommended as a long term practice. Meanwhile, being iodine replete (from regular consumption of Lugol’s solution or Iodorol) is generally safe and will prevent absorption of radioactive iodine. http://drsircus.com/medicine/iodine/iodine-rescue
Read more about iodine at GoodSchoolFood.weebly.com
The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Tepco, has said it may begin moving the fuel rods down from Unit #4 in November 2013. Because of Tepco’s incompetence to date, over 100,000 people signed Harvey Wasserman’s petition urging the creation of an international team of humankind's best scientific and engineering experts. This group would take over the operation and attempt to prevent the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe. (MoveOn.org and RootsAction.org)
If safety measures collapse any further, the radioactivity could make much of the northern hemisphere uninhabitable for hundreds of years. We saw the abandonment of the rich Ukrainian farmland and urban areas in Chernobyl, but this would be much larger since Fukushima has about 10 times more nuclear fuel than Chernobyl.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/20-0
Cores for three of the reactors are ‘missing,’ 11,000 fuel rods are scattered, and thousands of tons of contaminated water continue to pour into the Pacific. Reuters adds, “Massive amounts of radioactive fluids are accumulating at the Fukushima plant as Tepco floods reactor cores via a jerry-rigged system to keep melted uranium fuel rods cool and stable.”
Officials have a big problem: they must pump huge amounts of water onto the super-hot molten cores every day to prevent further meltdowns. "It's leaking like a sieve," Union of Concerned Scientist expert Ed Lyman told NBC News. For the past 900 days nearly 72,000 gallons of polluted water have flowed into the Pacific Ocean daily. "Right now, we have an emergency," said Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) taskforce. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-cirincione/fukushimas-song-of-ice-an_b_3763083.html