The Ongoing Fukushima Disaster
By James Donahue
The disastrous meltdown of three nuclear power plants at Fukushima, Japan, occurred just eight years ago and the world appears to have forgotten about it. Even the Japanese are attempting to pretend the situation has improved as they prepare to host the world Olympics in 2020. But the thing about deadly radiation . . . it hangs around for a very long time. And the Fukushima site is still generating radioactive water and air, spewing it off into the Pacific Ocean and the air just as if the melt-down occurred yesterday.
Consequently thyroid cancers are occurring heavily among the Japanese and among residents along the western coast of North America. Thyroid cancer has been known to be caused by radioactive iodine. This form of cancer appeared early after the bombing of Japan and after Chernobyl. It was followed by leukemia within five to 10 years of exposure. Dr. Helen Caldicott, in a recent radio interview with Michael Welch for Global Research warned that in about 15 years “solid cancers of every organ” can be expected.
Caldicott, former president of the U.S. Nuclear Policy Research Institute, said she believes there has been a huge cover up of the ongoing crisis at Fukushima by the Japanese government and the nuclear industry. She warned that the Fukushima nuclear meltdown continues unabated and may never be controlled in our lifetime. Three of the six nuclear power plants went into meltdown and she warns that another tsunami from a major earthquake like the one that struck the facility in 2011 could intensify the disaster. They are known to happen about every 25 years.
So what is going on that is making those broken Fukushima Dalichi reactors such a danger to the world?
In her interview Caldicott said: “Well there are ongoing emissions into the air consistently, number one. Number two, a huge amount of water is being stored –over a million gallons in tanks at the site. That water is being siphoned off from the reactor cores, the damaged melted cores. Water is pumped consistently every day, every hour, to keep the cores cool in case they have another melt. And that water, of course, is extremely contaminated.”
Because there is a limit to the amount of water that can be stored in the tanks, Caldicott said the workers at the site are considering emptying that water packed with strontium, cesium and a variety of other radioactive elements into the Pacific Ocean. But this is already happening. She noted that water flowing from the nearby mountains flows underneath the reactors and into the sea. By the time this water reaches the sea it is seriously contaminated.
A frozen wall of mud was erected in an attempt to control the mountain water runoff and this has reduced the radioactive runoff from 500 tons per day to about 150 tons. But the ice wall depends on refrigeration and this depends on electricity from some source. Thus Caldicott said the wall has always been “a transient thing . . . so it’s ridiculous. Over time the Pacific is going to become more and more radioactive.”
The molten cores of the three ruined plants have proven impossible to fix. “When robots go in and try to have a look at them their wiring just melts and disappears. They’re extraordinarily radioactive. No human can go near them because they would die within 48 hours from the radiation exposure. They will never, and I quote never, decommission those reactors. They will never be able to stop the water coming down from the mountains. And so, the truth be known, it’s an ongoing global radiological catastrophe which no one really is addressing in full,” she said.
Caldicott said the radiation is having a major effect on the seafood coming from the Pacific Ocean so it is prudent for people to stop eating fish caught in this part of the world. She also warned: “Do not eat any Japanese food because you don’t know where it’s sourced. Do not eat fish from Japan, miso, rice, you name it. Do not eat Japanese food. Period. Um, fish caught off the west coast of Canada and America, well, they’re not testing the fish so I don’t know what you’d do. Um, I mean, most of it’s probably not radioactive but you don’t know because you can’t taste it.”
Is the Fukushima radiation reaching North American soil and affecting the food grown along the California and Canadian coast? That is an unknown because Caldicott said the air-borne radioactive measuring instruments along the coast have been closed down. Our check with RadNet, the Environmental Protection Agencies’ nationwide radiation monitoring system, confirms this. The problem has apparently been the government’s budget cuts that are heavily affecting the EPA.
A report by Global Research stated that the latest testing by the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Center finds that "radiation levels at radiation monitoring stations all over the country were elevated . . . This is particularly true along the west coast of the United States. Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean. That means that the total amount of radioactive material released from Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in our food chain."
Beta is a lower form of radiation, but it has the potential of causing cancer when people and animals are exposed to it for any length of time. When taken internally the beta emissions in toxic fish products, for example can cause tissue damage as well as increase the risk of internal cancers.
Some beta-emitters like Iodine-131 attack the thyroid gland and Strontium-90 builds up in the bones and teeth. Carbon 14 spreads throughout the body.
If the reports are correct, the United States and Canada . . . and perhaps the entire Northern Hemisphere of the world, is under silent attack from the Fukushima disaster and cannot be brought under control.
In conclusion Caldicott reiterated her concern about future earthquakes and tsunamis, which have happened historically in that part of Japan. “If there’s another large earthquake, number one, all those tanks would be destroyed and the water would pour into the Pacific. Number two: there could be another meltdown, a release – huge release of radiation, um, from the damaged reactors. So, things are very tenuous, but they’re not just tenuous now. They’re going to be tenuous forever.”
By James Donahue
The disastrous meltdown of three nuclear power plants at Fukushima, Japan, occurred just eight years ago and the world appears to have forgotten about it. Even the Japanese are attempting to pretend the situation has improved as they prepare to host the world Olympics in 2020. But the thing about deadly radiation . . . it hangs around for a very long time. And the Fukushima site is still generating radioactive water and air, spewing it off into the Pacific Ocean and the air just as if the melt-down occurred yesterday.
Consequently thyroid cancers are occurring heavily among the Japanese and among residents along the western coast of North America. Thyroid cancer has been known to be caused by radioactive iodine. This form of cancer appeared early after the bombing of Japan and after Chernobyl. It was followed by leukemia within five to 10 years of exposure. Dr. Helen Caldicott, in a recent radio interview with Michael Welch for Global Research warned that in about 15 years “solid cancers of every organ” can be expected.
Caldicott, former president of the U.S. Nuclear Policy Research Institute, said she believes there has been a huge cover up of the ongoing crisis at Fukushima by the Japanese government and the nuclear industry. She warned that the Fukushima nuclear meltdown continues unabated and may never be controlled in our lifetime. Three of the six nuclear power plants went into meltdown and she warns that another tsunami from a major earthquake like the one that struck the facility in 2011 could intensify the disaster. They are known to happen about every 25 years.
So what is going on that is making those broken Fukushima Dalichi reactors such a danger to the world?
In her interview Caldicott said: “Well there are ongoing emissions into the air consistently, number one. Number two, a huge amount of water is being stored –over a million gallons in tanks at the site. That water is being siphoned off from the reactor cores, the damaged melted cores. Water is pumped consistently every day, every hour, to keep the cores cool in case they have another melt. And that water, of course, is extremely contaminated.”
Because there is a limit to the amount of water that can be stored in the tanks, Caldicott said the workers at the site are considering emptying that water packed with strontium, cesium and a variety of other radioactive elements into the Pacific Ocean. But this is already happening. She noted that water flowing from the nearby mountains flows underneath the reactors and into the sea. By the time this water reaches the sea it is seriously contaminated.
A frozen wall of mud was erected in an attempt to control the mountain water runoff and this has reduced the radioactive runoff from 500 tons per day to about 150 tons. But the ice wall depends on refrigeration and this depends on electricity from some source. Thus Caldicott said the wall has always been “a transient thing . . . so it’s ridiculous. Over time the Pacific is going to become more and more radioactive.”
The molten cores of the three ruined plants have proven impossible to fix. “When robots go in and try to have a look at them their wiring just melts and disappears. They’re extraordinarily radioactive. No human can go near them because they would die within 48 hours from the radiation exposure. They will never, and I quote never, decommission those reactors. They will never be able to stop the water coming down from the mountains. And so, the truth be known, it’s an ongoing global radiological catastrophe which no one really is addressing in full,” she said.
Caldicott said the radiation is having a major effect on the seafood coming from the Pacific Ocean so it is prudent for people to stop eating fish caught in this part of the world. She also warned: “Do not eat any Japanese food because you don’t know where it’s sourced. Do not eat fish from Japan, miso, rice, you name it. Do not eat Japanese food. Period. Um, fish caught off the west coast of Canada and America, well, they’re not testing the fish so I don’t know what you’d do. Um, I mean, most of it’s probably not radioactive but you don’t know because you can’t taste it.”
Is the Fukushima radiation reaching North American soil and affecting the food grown along the California and Canadian coast? That is an unknown because Caldicott said the air-borne radioactive measuring instruments along the coast have been closed down. Our check with RadNet, the Environmental Protection Agencies’ nationwide radiation monitoring system, confirms this. The problem has apparently been the government’s budget cuts that are heavily affecting the EPA.
A report by Global Research stated that the latest testing by the Nuclear Emergency Tracking Center finds that "radiation levels at radiation monitoring stations all over the country were elevated . . . This is particularly true along the west coast of the United States. Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean. That means that the total amount of radioactive material released from Fukushima is constantly increasing, and it is steadily building up in our food chain."
Beta is a lower form of radiation, but it has the potential of causing cancer when people and animals are exposed to it for any length of time. When taken internally the beta emissions in toxic fish products, for example can cause tissue damage as well as increase the risk of internal cancers.
Some beta-emitters like Iodine-131 attack the thyroid gland and Strontium-90 builds up in the bones and teeth. Carbon 14 spreads throughout the body.
If the reports are correct, the United States and Canada . . . and perhaps the entire Northern Hemisphere of the world, is under silent attack from the Fukushima disaster and cannot be brought under control.
In conclusion Caldicott reiterated her concern about future earthquakes and tsunamis, which have happened historically in that part of Japan. “If there’s another large earthquake, number one, all those tanks would be destroyed and the water would pour into the Pacific. Number two: there could be another meltdown, a release – huge release of radiation, um, from the damaged reactors. So, things are very tenuous, but they’re not just tenuous now. They’re going to be tenuous forever.”