The National Energy Institute (NEI) is launching a massive pro-nuke campaign. The false claims that nuclear energy is clean, safe and green will be made yet again.
Please contact your local public radio station and ask them to run this PSA. If they are unaware of the problems with nuclear power direct them to http://RadiationTruth.org, or to your other favorite sites.
This is how David Brenner, PhD, of the The Center for Radiological Research at Columbia, answered my question on at a talk on "The Many Ways Radiation Affects our Lives". The talk was held at Hofstra College on Dec. 1st, 2011.
I formulated my question after Dr. Brenner quizzed the audience on if we knew what our lifetime chances of getting cancer was. After a few guesses that were on the low side, he informed us we all had a 40% chance of getting cancer during our lifetime. I asked "In the 1950s, chemicals in our environment, food, and personal products became widespread, at the same time US nuclear testing released the equivalent in radiation of 18,000- 29,000 Hiroshimas. Within 10 years cancer rates began escalating towards the epidemic rates they are at today.
Do you disagree?"
The Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) is a nonprofit educational and scientific organization, started by scientists and physicians. It is dedicated to understanding the relationships between low-level, nuclear radiation and public health. From their website:
"During the first half century of the Nuclear Age a growing body of medical and scientific evidence has emerged to demonstrate a probable causal link between low-level internal radiation from the ingestion of man-made fission products and world-wide increases in immune deficiency diseases, especially cancer and those affecting the newborn. RPHP has assembled much of the epidemiological evidence documenting these links."
"Five books published by RPHP research associates summarize hundreds of articles in peer-reviewed journals dealing with these impacts of ingested, low-level fission products--products which did not exist in nature prior to the Nuclear Age. In addition to the effects upon the immune response of all age groups, the very young have been especially affected. RPHP has repeatedly pointed out the radiation-induced damage apparent in official vital statistics, tracing changes in infant mortality rates and underweight live births in the postwar period, especially during the above ground nuclear test years of the 1950s and the 1960s."
"RPHP has also been able to track the radiation-induced damage done to the hormonal and immune systems of the 80 million baby boomers born between 1945 and 1965 in each of the post war decades, revealing the various epidemiological anomalies: In the 1950s, children born after the enormous initial exposure to nuclear fission products began to experience epidemic increases in childhood cancer in the ages 5 to 9."
Even the National Cancer Institute (NCI) states that although cancer incidence has declined somewhat since the year 2000 (smoking declined during the last decade as well) childhood cancer has been on the rise for the last decade. I would have liked to ask Dr. Brenner what could possibly have caused that if not contact with toxic substances the environment either before or after birth.
I assume he was ignorant of the fact that even the National Cancer Institute has declared that diet and lifestyle changes can reduce one's risk by 75%. He might have pointed this out rather than scare us all with the 40% statistic.
He completely ignored the subject of internal exposure through contaminated water or food. When questioned, he did admit they have no data on this, so he did not address it.
It is well known that children are very sensitive to radiation, with results ranging from birth defects, leukemia and lower IQ. What has been covered up is the high risk women face. The difference between external radiation, upon which the IAEA model is based, and radioactive particles that are ingested, through breathing or eating, is not even looked at.
Here some highlights from the NIRS briefing paper:
"The fact that this information has not been widely reported has deprived women of our right to know about this threat and protect ourselves from this harm. In addition to the 'right to know,' women have the right to protection. The U.S. Constitution guarantees “equal protection under the law.” International “allowable” radiation levels do not reflect disproportionate harm to women – or the extent to which they say they do, they are not protective."
"In the U.S. it may be necessary to depart from the international radiation regime in order to deliver constitutional rights to the more than 150 million females in the United States."
"Further, this situation violates the Right to Free Prior and Informed Consent as recognized throughout the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international human rights instruments, norms and standards;5 particularly Article 19:States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.
To our knowledge, no women, indigenous or otherwise, have given 'informed consent' to a striking lack of protection from ionizing radiation."
"The world’s radiation standards were originally developed to allow exposure rather than to prevent it. This makes sense given the historical context: the need for such regulation arose in the early 20th Century when exposure to human-concentrated or human-generated radioactivity was rare. The Manhattan Project, the all-out national effort to develop the first atomic bombs, was one of the original “drivers” pushing the development of “permissible” radiation exposure levels. It is also the origin of assuming the individual receiving a radiation dose is a male--a Manhattan Project worker. With the advent of nuclear energy and the facilities that produce nuclear fuel and handle waste, these standards have become evermore generalized to a larger and larger public."
"The current limits for most industrial radiation in the U.S. allow fatal cancer among members of the general public at a rate that is between 300--3000 times higher than the legal rate of harm from most other industrial hazards."
"A hazardous industry has traditionally been defined as one that causes cancer in one individual in a million. The Environmental Protection Agency’s goals for clean-up of contamination on industrial Super Fund sites is a risk of one in a million exposed getting cancer, with exceptions down to 1 cancer in 10,000 people exposed. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission now “allows” radiation levels to the general public that it projects would result in 1 fatal cancer in every 286 people (well, actually, adult men) exposed over a lifetime. However, this is “apples” compared to “oranges.” EPA regulations reference cancer incidence. NRC references deaths; if non-fatal cancers were included by NRC, the comparison would be even “worse.” We are less protected by NRC radiation standards than the regulation of other toxic hazards by EPA."
"The NRC limit of 100 millirems a year is comparable to the NAS 100 millirad study level. NRC’s risk assessment of 1 fatal cancer in every 286 exposed does not reflect the NAS findings that radiation at this level to women results in 1 fatal cancer in every 201 women. The NRC equation underestimates the risk to women by nearly 40%. Since NRC does not differentiate between men and women in its regulations, it does not regulate to specifically protect women. Thus women are not equally protected where such standards are in place."
Read the entire paper at: NIRS
"A subtle increase in the number of miscarriages and fetal deaths will be the first manifestation that something is amiss. An elevated incidence of birth defects will begin in the Fall and continue into the indefinite future. Thyroid diseases, cardiac diseases and elevated rates of infant and childhood leukemia will follow. Over the next decade and beyond, cancer rates will soar."
The evidence for the prediction above is found in scientific studies done by independent scientists at Chernobyl, says Paul Zimmerman. Paul explains how covering up the truth includes falsifying data, underestimating exposure, not gathering data, and much more in this detailed analysis, and call to action for the Japanese and citizens around the world.
He explains the inadequacy of the risk model developed many years ago by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. However, it is handy, when leukemia rates rise near nuclear plants or near sites of nuclear accidents, they are attributed to anything but radiation, as the old model doesn't cover such a result.
Paul Zimmerman has done an outstanding job in exposing the evils the nuclear industry has gone to to put profit ahead of all else. Here is the article in its entirety.
Published in CounterPunch on September 28th and written by MICHAEL LEONARDI
As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Industry, and Obama administration continue to push nuclear energy as safe and clean, a grassroots insurgency is growing from the awakening depths of the growingly vociferous American maelstrom. Fukushima’s three meltdowns continue to emit over a billion bequerels of radioactivity a day into the environment and that radiation is spreading. The international media and all Atomic regulatory agencies around the world have been complicit in keeping the reality of this catastrophe silent. In the United States of America, despite reports of a decrepit, failing and unsafe nuclear program from the pages of CounterPunch to the Associated Press, CBS News and beyond, most Americans remain quiet and numbed on this issue. Much of this country’s union leadership, beholden to a broken and corporate owned Democratic Party and the monstrous energy giants that provide them jobs, have a slave plantation mentality toward their Radioactive, Oil Extrapolating and Gas Fracking bosses. The promise of a Green revolution based around economically viable, RENEWABLE and truly safe energy sources seems to be bound and shackled by a ball and chain mentality, but signs of a breaking point have finally begun to surface!
A truly grassroots insurgency is underway and is introducing itself to the world on October 1st with actions across North America. The Coalition Against Nukes has mobilized for the past several months to begin a no nuke uprising that won’t stop until ALL of our nuclear power plants are shut down and our future generations can look forward to a Nuke Free World. Isn’t it enough that we are leaving our future generations with the legacy of millions of gallons of nuclear waste and thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel to monitor and control for thousands of years? A part from Governor Perry’s idea of nuking Texas — which we might want to consider — there is no solution to ridding ourselves of this extremely toxic and highly radioactive waste piling up in hotspots around the globe. Enough is Enough!
The time has come to look beyond the lies and propaganda of our so-called world leaders and see them for what they are. We are being led down a path of destruction by criminal governments running a global system of mafia wars, rape and pillage as they take more and more from us all while poisoning and desecrating our air, land and water beyond any natural recognition. Our children are suffering now from respiratory illnesses and disease and the search for a cure for cancer lies in eliminating the industrial pollutants that cause it not in a research laboratory. As of yesterday the Palisades Nuclear power plant on the shores of Lake Michigan was venting radioactive steam. The amounts are minimal and harmless say the NRC and Entergy spokespeople, THEY ARE LYING as they always do and this is the essence of their existence.
Look to the lessons we are learning from Japan. If there is a serious nuclear accident this is what we can count on from our governments, the United Nations, the World Health Organization and those “in charge”. They will lie to us for months, they will abandon us to die and they will act like nothing is happening. This is what is unfolding in the Crime Against Humanity devastating the 3 million residents and mainly the children that have been left in areas 5 times more radioactive than the areas of the Ukraine evacuated until this day after Chernobyl. Try and get your minds around how callous and utterly disdainful our governments have become toward their populations. Our governments represent the Inhumane Capitalist Engine and we are all disposable. Let us die our cancerous deaths while we are told that we have nothing to fear is the stark reality we are facing not tomorrow but today.
The alarm bells are ringing as Wall Street becomes the target of a global revolt. As C.A.N. organizer Remy Chevalier put it “It is time to zero in on Entergy, Exelon, Constellation, Dominion… all the sick nuclear power companies run by thugs.” These are just a few and I’d broaden that to include all of the Energy, Chemical and Biological Mutating giants that are hell bent on destroying the life affirming forces this beautiful planet has offered our species.
This is a call to action and the time to act is now. Not on facebook, not with letters and petitions, but in the streets and parks across the land on October 1st and beyond. The Coalition Against Nukes has pulled together rallies across the US and Canada on October 1st. The rally in New York will have a powerful list of speakers including CounterPunch contributors Helen Caldicott, Harvey Wasserman, Kevin Kamps, Karl Grossman and more. In downtown Toledo, Ohio congressmen Dennis Kucinich will join us in a rally calling for the shut down of Davis Besse and Fermi 2! Dennis is bucking the Democratic Party trend and as he has always done by saying No to Nukes! He will be joined by two Democratic council members, Green Party activists and more. In Virginia activists will target the state capital in a state that wants to bring back Uranium Mining. In California, Chicago, New Jersey, Florida, and Washington State NO NUKES will be the message. They will be drumming Against Nukes in Toronto Canada and as we voice our solidarity with the people of Japan and cry out NEVER AGAIN! The Japanese will be standing up to say no more nukes! In India they are marching and hunger striking to ban nukes. Italy banned nukes with a successful grassroots storm. Germany will be Nuke Free by 2022. It is time for this movement to rise up in United Sates too! NO NUKES ! ! ! Please visit the C.A.N. website at www.coalitionagainstnukes.org/ and join a rally near you or do something creatively anti-nuclear on October 1st and spread the word.
Michael Leonardi is a C.A.N. organizer and writer living for now between Toledo, Ohio and Italy. He is currently working for the Service Employees International Union to repeal the attack on collective bargaining in the State of Ohio. He can be reached at mikeleonardi@hotmail.com
Here in the US, we derive 3.2 % of our total electricity from wind power. Just adding the new design, called a wind lens, would increase the power produced by wind to 9.6% of the total. The new design would also make wind power cheaper than coal and nuclear power, sans subsidies.
Read all about it in the Earthy Report
Excellent article in Riverkeeper exposing Entergy's 3 biggest lies.
Claiming a need to review nuclear safety standards, the UN has actually lowered safety requirements. Nuclear Free Planet
Government agreed to downplay Fukushima radiation
Solar IMG Podcast
According to Arnie Gundersen, a energy advisor veteran with 39 years of experience as a nuclear power engineer, Fukushima is still unstable and leaking. Gunderson told SolarIMG that Americans are unaware they are being rained on with Fukushima nuclear hot particles and eating Fukushima contaminated food because the US government has deliberately minimized the catastrophe. This is partially due to a pact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed with Japan. Gundersen, is working with a team of other scientists to prove government statements about Fukushima are false.
"The United States came up with a decision to downplay Fukushima," said Gundersen who is awakening the public with information such as hot particles in rain will continue falling in the U.S., not just in the Pacific Northwest, for another year, and mentioning high-level fallout in Oklahoma a few days ago.
Gundersen said that Hillary Clinton signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan agreeing for the United States to continue buying food from Japan, even thought that food is not being properly tested for radioactive materials. Gunderson got the information from high-level people in the State Department."So we are not sampling the food coming into the United States./
The US government has come up with a decision at the highest levels of the State Department, as well as other departments who made a decision to downplay Fukushima," stated Gunderson.
In April, one month after the powerful tsunami and earthquake hit Japan, Gunderson said that "Hillary Clinton signed a pact with Japan that she agreed there is no problem with Japanese food supply and we will continue to buy them so we are not sampling food coming in from Japan."
Gunderson has asked Americans with Geiger counters to send samples to him for an independent research team's study.
Gundersen is convinced that the new study will prove that what the U.S. government is telling Americans is false.
Arnie Gundersen featured on his Fairwinds website a new documentary short titled, "Dial 'M' For Meltdown." The video was created by Brian Rich to ensure the history of commercial nuclear power was documented and presented in an exciting way to a younger generation.
"I found most of the public was turned off by the complex nature of Nuclear Physics, even if what they didn't know was going to kill them and their loved ones," said Rich.
Is Fukushima stabilized? Many children to suffer thyroid cancer in three to five years
"The reactors are better than since the accident," reported Gundersen, but "they all have holes on them, so they are not holding water."
"Until a couple of weeks ago, they had to constantly add water. Now there's a system in place that's cleaning the water enough that they can pump it back into the reactor."
The reactors are still creating "an enormous amount of waste," said Gunderson, and that "the filters are hotter than a pistol."
"I still believe water is leaking into the ocean and I know water's leaking into the ground table."
Gundersen is concerned about indications that there is still iodine on site plus, "enormous amounts of iodine have been in the water."
"There's an awful lot of kids that are going to have thyroid problems in the next three to five years as the result of this."
Kicking the nuclear can, On the Edge: Unit 4, Contaminated food and water, Children and cancer
Gundersen is "becoming increasingly concerned" about Fukushima's impact on Americans.
He listed his major concerns related to Fukushima impact in the United States: Unit 4; radioactive beef, soil and rain; burning contaminated materials; and raising dose amounts.
Gunderson believes that Fukushima's Unit 4 is "very fragile and could topple" in another earthquake.
Rather than a whole of government approach of resolving the radiation problem and protecting the people each Japanese prefecture is "doing its own thing"
"There is radioactive beef. There's radioactive soil. There's going to be radioactive straw."
"The Japanese are not sampling enough," said Gunderson, and Fukushima food is being bought by unwitting Americans.
The Japanese government arbitrarily increased the amount of "acceptable limits of radiation" a person can have, including raising child amount to the same as adults.
"For every 250 REM, you can expect a cancer," he said. "So for every 10 men... one of those 10 will get cancer as a result of working at Fukushima."
"They've got 8,000 people on site," so the chances are 50:50 an individual worker will get cancer.
Gunderson stated "I'm estimating over the next five years, you're going to see a 20% increase in lung cancer. You're not going to be able to say a person's individual cancer came from Fukushima, but when you look at northern Japan, whatever the rate would have been, there will be a 20% more."
Burning contaminated materials results in what Gundersen referred to as "kicking the can."
"The Japanese are allowing the contaminated material to be burned as long as it's less than 7000 Becquerels. What they're also allowing is, if you have a high concentration material and a low concentration material, you can average those two out."
The radioactive contaminated material being burned in one prefecture in Japan contaminates the neighboring prefecture.
"It eventually ends up into the Pacific Northwest, either into B.C., Oregon, Washington or California. The process of burning the radioactive material means they're kicking the can down the road."
Gundersen added, "The accident isn't over. It's continually throwing back up the cesium which is already on the ground and getting into plants."
"It's going to get worse now with the straw harvest," he said, speaking about the Japanese rice harvest beginning in September.
"After the rice is harvested, the straw, like the rice it grew, will be contaminated. With a half-life of 30 years, you're not going to let it set in your barn for 300 years. You're going to burn it."
As the contaminated straw is burned and kicked into the next prefecture, etc, it will eventually make its way over to the United States and Canada where it will come down in the rain.
So continued Gunderson, "Kick the problem to Hawaii or British Columbia or Oregon."
"A rainout is when a radioactive cloud passes over an area and, due to a coincidental rainstorm, the hot particles get dropped on the soil."
"We're going to see another year of these rainouts."
"Geiger counters were going off the scale" a few weeks ago in British Columbia, said Gundersen, who added that the "only conclusion you could come to was industrial burning in Japan."
Proving government wrong calls for citizenry participation
"I'm working with scientists to definitively prove what the government health officials say is wrong," Gundersen stated, adding that the public can help do that.
He added, "now with lots of citizens having Geiger counters," they can help with the new study by wiping a surface one meter by one meter with a cloth after a rainout, and placing that cloth under the Geiger counter.
"If you get a positive reading on the cloth, I'd like to see the cloth," he said.
Gundersen advises people taking samples to note the location and time the sample was taken. He also requests that people wrap the sample in a triple layer of foil before mailing it to Fairwinds.
"Their constant truthful testimony against the nuclear industry... should be a real awakening to the public at large," said Brian Rich. He also said that "Meeting Arnold Gundersen and his wife Maggie only opened my eyes to the dangers our country and civilization face because of decisions made decades ago and the lies created to further the nuclear agenda."
Contact Gundersen through Fairwinds for further instructions about helping with the research: fairewinds.com/. See ENENEWS Energy News for regular radiation updates from Fukushima and United States nuclear power plants.