Fukushima impacts are ongoing

SUBHEAD: There will be at least 100,000 and as many as one million more cancers in Japan because of Fukushima disaster.

By Arne Gundersen on 4 November 2015 for Fairewinds Assoc.(http://www.fairewinds.org/nuclear-energy-education/cancer-on-the-rise-in-post-fukushima-japan)

Image above: A doctor conducts a thyroid examination on four-year-old Maria Sakamoto in Iwaki, Japan. From (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/fukushima-children-debate-thyroid-cancer-japan-disaster-nuclear-radiation).

Cancer on the Rise in Japan

It’s been almost five years from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns, and the news from Japan is still not good. Two reports recently released in Japan, one by Japanese medical professionals and the second from Tokyo Power Corporation – TEPCO – acknowledged that there will be numerous cancers in Japan, much greater than normal, due to the radioactive discharges from the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi.


In Fairewinds’ latest update of the ongoing nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi, Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen presents two reports that confirm the direct link of numerous cancers in Japan to the triple meltdown. Based upon data from Japanese medical professionals and utility owner of the meltdown site, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Arnie concludes that heavy radioactive discharges will be the cause of enormous spikes in cancer in Japan.

TEPCO’s press release confirms the leukemia diagnosis for a TEPCO worker due to his ongoing exposure during the last four years to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdown. Sadly, during the early months of the Fukushima Daiichi emergency, most TEPCO workers did not wear the required dosimeters required to measure each employee’s exposure to radiation, which has made accurate assessment of the radiation doses received by TEPCO employees impossible.

The second report, provided by esteemed Japanese medical professionals, reveals that the incidence of thyroid cancer is approximately 230 times higher than normal in the Fukushima Prefecture.  This disturbing number for the people of Japan is solely due to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster and the ongoing radioactivity emanating from the decimated nuclear site.

In this video, Arnie recounts his presentation from 2013 at the New York Academy of Medicine where he forecast continuous radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and also the devastating health effects for the Japanese people, despite the chronically underestimated radiation exposure levels propagated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the Japanese government.

In this video below, Arnie recounts his presentation from 2013 at the New York Academy of Medicine where he forecast continuous radiation releases from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and also the devastating health effects for the Japanese people, despite the chronically underestimated radiation exposure levels propagated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the Japanese government.


Video above: From (http://www.fairewinds.org/nuclear-energy-education/cancer-on-the-rise-in-post-fukushima-japan). From (https://vimeo.com/144307674).

---

Uncontrolled chain reaction
SUBHEAD: Former Japanese Ambassador calls for Japan calling off 2020 Olympics in Tokyo because of ongoing and future dangers posed by Fukushima disaster.

By Admin on 4 November 2015 for ENE News -
(http://enenews.com/former-japan-ambassador-uncontrolled-nuclear-chain-reactions-suspected-fukushima-troubling-indications-recurring-criticality-tellurium-132-detected-100-miles-plant-recriticality-issue-discussed)


Image above: Time for a retreat. Workers removing logo from Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games poster after accusation of plagiarism. From (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/11/04/voices/time-come-honorable-retreat-tokyo-2020-fukushima#.Vj-r58onpBo).

Japan Times, Nov 4, 2015 (emphasis added): The former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland, Mitsuhei Murata, recently suggested that Japan should stage an ‘honorable retreat’ from hosting the 2020 Olympics due to the unpredictable situation at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Japan Times (Hotline to Nagatacho — Brian Victoria, Kyoto), Nov 4, 2015: [F]ormer Japanese ambassador to Switzerland, Mitsuhei Murata, recently proposed… for Japan to stage an “honorable retreat” from hosting the 2020 Olympics…

In the September issue of Gekkan Nippon, Murata… noted the danger still posed by large numbers of spent fuel rods suspended in spent fuel pools in reactors 1, 2 and 3 [which] can’t be removed from the damaged reactor buildings due to the high levels of radioactivity surrounding these reactors…

Murata’s gravest concern is a number of troubling indications of recurring criticality [ i.e. uncontrolled nuclear chain reactions] in one or more of the reactors at Fukushima No. 1. For example, he notes that in December 2014, both radioactive iodine-131 and tellurium-132 were reported as having been detected in Takasaki city, Gunma Prefecture [~130 miles SW of Fukushima Daiichi]. Given the short half-lives of these radioactive particles, their presence could not be the result of the original meltdowns at Fukushima.

Ambassador Murata to Dr. Thomas Bach (President of the International Olympic Committee), Jun 15, 2015: Allow me to send you a letter, motivated by my sense of mission to inform you of the worsening situation in Fukushima, which regrettably is being downplayed by our Government and does not seem to be well known internationally…

Contrary to the assurances of the Japanese Government and [TEPCO], the situation at the site of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is not at all under control… Not only do we have a continued contamination of the groundwater and the Pacific Ocean… but the brittle structure of the damaged plant represents itself a serious threat, in particular in our earthquake prone region.

Ambassador Murata to Susana Malcorra (United Nations Chef de Cabinet), Aug 27, 2015: I am sending you my fourth message to President Bach of The IOC. I inform him of my message addressed to Prime Minister Abe. In my message… I ask for the first concrete international cooperation concerning the method  of cooling spent fuel rods making use of zinc instead of water. This is crucially important.

The Pacific Ocean is more and more contaminated with the daily release of more than 300 tons radioactive groundwater. I remind Prime Minister Abe that the decision to retreat from the Tokyo Olympic Games and carry out an international verification of the suspected re-criticality is urgently needed…

My interview article was published in the magazine “Monthly Japan” (September). The article entitled “An honorable retreat from the Tokyo Olympic Games” is given a central place. Reactions are noteworthy and encouraging. Conscientious citizens start questioning the integrity of the IOC. Please convey my warmest greetings to Secretary-General Ban-kimoon.

Interestingly, two weeks ago the head of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority addressed the recriticality issue:

Fukushima Minpo, Oct 20, 2015: Nuclear regulator chief says Fukushima Daiichi recriticality “physically impossible” — Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, visited the Minamisoma city government for talks with Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai on Oct. 22. 

Regarding Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tanaka said, “We are no longer in a situation that prevents residents from returning (to their evacuated hometowns). Recriticality is physically impossible.”

See also: MIT professor: “There is a high probability that, if a quake of magnitude 7.9 or above, or some other serious event, strikes Fukushima, a ‘criticality’ will occur… The next criticality may be far more serious”

And: Gov’t Document: Re-criticality a threat at Fukushima




.