Nuclear Shutdown News for June 2021
By Michael Steinberg / Black Rain Press
Nuclear Shutdown News chronicles the decline and fall of the nuclear power industry in the US and beyond and highlights the efforts of those working to create a nuclear free world.
Legacy Of Fukushima Disaster Haunts Olympics
On March 25 CNN reported that the Olympic torch for this summer’s Olympic games in Japan was lit and then circulated by runners in Fukushima Prefecture, site of the March 20ll nuclear disaster.
Some of the runners were survivors of the catastrophe themselves, and some of those had lost family members back then.
The date of this event , almost 10 years to the day after the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami, followed by the meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, appeared to be to convince the Japanese people and the world at large that the nation is safe enough to host this year’s Olympics, and also assert that the catastrophic event is all in the past.
An explosion at the Fukushima site.
The Olympics was postponed last year because of the Covid 19 pandemic. But the pandemic in Japan, like the Fukushima disaster, is far from over.
The three Fukushima Daichi melted down reactors’ nuclear fuel is still sitting at the bottom of their reactor buildings, still too radioactive for humans to approach it without the risk of certain death.
At the same time, the lethal nuclear fuel must constantly be covered with injected water, or the fuel could heat up to cause another nuclear catastrophe. This water in turn heats and itself becomes radioactive. So it has to be removed and then put in storage tanks around the site. Ten-year-old tanks are leaking and the contaminated stuff can end up in the Pacific Ocean, threatening Japan’s fishing industry.
“Would you like today’s special, the Fukushima ‘hot’ sushi?'”
In addition, some areas around Fukushima are still so radioactive they are deemed unsafe for human habitation, although some people have returned because they have no other place to go or miss their old homeplaces.
The attempt to persuade the world that all is safe and well for the Olympics seems to have failed, at least in Japan. On May 26, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article entitled, “Most Japanese want Olympics to be cancelled.”
It reported:
“More than 80% of Japanese residents said in recent polls that they want the Olympic Games canceled or again postponed. Doctors’ and nurses’ groups say hospitals could not handle another increase in COVID-19 cases and the threat of virus variations coming in from around the world. Japan’s richest man, a beloved tennis star and a top politician have all questioned the wisdom of hosting the Games in a pandemic. Dozens of towns scrapped plans to host training camps or other Olympic-related events out of corona virus concerns.
The Japanese government was quick to deny a U.S. warning for Americans traveling to Japan avoid would have an Impact on Olympians wanting to compete in the postponed Tokyo games.”
The article is accompanied by a large color photograph captioned:
“People walk by a screen showing a warning by the U.S. State Department on traveling to Japan because of a surge in coronavirus cases in the country, which is preparing to host the Olympics is just two months.”
Sources: CNN, cnn.com; San Francisco Chronicle, sfgate.com
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My best friend’s wife is Hawai’ian-born Japanese with plenty of relatives in Japan that she hears from. Due to the extremely restrictive new State Secrets law negating public release of radiation readings by anyone other than approved government sources, and we know how that usually works out and not for the betterment of public interests, there is a near blackout of real information coming out of Japan. Officially. The Abe government banned Greenpeace because they were taking readings that disputed ‘official’ findings like the plutonium found on elementary school outdoor play equipment in Tokyo and the mega-tons of dirt scraped off the valley floors of Fukushima Province that re-irradiate the ground every time it rains and washes more dirt down from the surrounding mountains that are thoroughly coated and contaminated with fallout. How does one ‘cleanse’ radioactive mountains? They might as well hold an Olympics at Chernobyl which, by comparison, had only one melt-down and was far less dangerous than three total melt-downs though it, too, is starting to scare the hell out of people:
Chernobyl Radiation Surge ‘Cause for Concern,’ Say Scientists
One nuclear scientist said the situation is “like the embers in a barbecue pit.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/13/chernobyl-radiation-surge-cause-concern-say-scientists
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The Japanese government doesn’t even know where the 200 ton reactor cores are because they burned through all containment and disappeared burning their way into the ground below the reactors and are now ‘lost.’ Great way to describe that, eh? But this article shows just how scary the actions of the Japanese government have become:
If Fukushima’s Water is Safe, Then Drink it!
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/04/23/if-fukushimas-water-is-safe-then-drink-it/
By now, the world knows all about the decision by Japan to dump tritium-laced radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. According to Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, the treated and diluted water will be “safe to drink.” Furthermore, he claims the country should have started releasing it into the ocean earlier. (Source: China to Japan: If Treated Radioactive Water From Fukushima is Safe, ‘Please Drink It’ Washington Post, April 15, 2021)
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How does one ‘treat’ hundreds of tons of radioactive water?
The new state secrets law signed by Abe says if you release any information you face 10 years in prison…
sealintheSelkirks