Post by Ex_Nuke_Troop on Apr 21, 2014 2:48:39 GMT
The Voice of Russia : Unlike Chernobyl, Fukushima was never brought under control, radiation spreads across the world - epidemiologist
19 April, 04:31
A manager of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Akira Ono, has admitted that the nuclear disaster handlers are not in full control of the cleanup process. Ono's announcement added to the incessant concerns that the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co has been failing to tackle the numerous problems at the station. Last week, the plant saw another blunder when 203 tons of highly contaminated water were pumped into the wrong building. The Voice of Russia has asked Joseph Mangano, epidemiologist and Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project research group, about the risks from the Fukushima fallout.
Earlier, TEPCO claimed that treatment of contaminated water would be finished by March 2015. Now the plant's operator makes more modest projections and describes the previous deadline as a "tough goal". The Japanese government has been providing TEPCO with funds and equipment, but the company still remains under fire for the way it is handling the consequences of the 2011 nuclear disaster.
A manager of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Akira Ono, admitted that the nuclear disaster handlers are not in full control of the cleanup process. And actually, it seems that we've been hearing this many times now over the years. Is this anything and what do you make of that statement coming from Akira Ono? Does this perhaps show that the Japanese are now being more frank about the situation at hand?
That is the new part that the truth is starting to come out. But people have known from the beginning that this not only was a huge disaster, but that it was never brought under control, compared to Chernobyl, which was the other major nuclear accident, which was brought control – it was buried and put under a sarcophagus within several months. This is different. This is over three years later. Radiation is still leaking into the air and it is still leaking into the Pacific Ocean and not in small amounts, but in very-very large amounts.
We’ve been hearing about how bad this is and how this is getting into the Pacifi Ocean, and how it is going to contaminate the oceans and the fish, and the risks to the residents and people who actually don't live even near to the Fukushima disaster's site. But could they really have done much more than they have done? That's the question that really seems to be pertinent, because we hear a lot about this and we hear the international community saying that it is being poorly handled. But no one else has really gotten involved in it. What more could have been done?
That's a great question. And I honestly don't have an answer. Maybe TEPCO and the Japanese government have done all they could. I think the key point here is that nuclear reactors are capable of terrible-terrible disasters such as this, which may not be controlled. And the real unfortunate part is that people suffer, people get sick, people die when they are exposed to these very dangerous chemicals.
How many more nuclear plants do we have in sites that have high seismic activity?
Too many. I don't know the exact number, but even if it is one, that is too many.
What countries are they in? I'm just wondering, maybe the world has learnt something from the TAPCO Fukushima disaster.
I'm most familiar with the US. And certainly since 2011 in Fukushima there has been a public report on the number of the US nuclear plants that are located on a seismic fold or are in danger of an earthquake. And I've forgot the exact number. There are 63 plants in the US with 100 reactors. And at least a dozen are on folds.
Are those any safer than the TEPCO plant was?
No!
So, it is pretty much the same situation. It is just that there was no tsunami in the sites that we are talking about, there was no earthquake as of yet.
Right! Whether there is a high chance of an earthquake and tsunami or a low chance, it is still a chance and that makes this very dangerous.
Talking about the international community, it seems like not a lot has been learnt in any case. We haven't seen a huge decrease in the number of plants or plants to even close. I think that Germany was doing something. What about the actual cleaning up of what's left of the TEPCO disaster? Is there anything that the world community can do to assist Japan and will Japan accept that?
I think it is a question more for an engineer or a policy expert. Our expertise is health. And I think that is something that has been largely ignored by the Japanese Government and industry. Our organization is the only one that is publishing medical journal articles on the diseases and death rate after Fukushima.
We've published four of them. In the US it is very hard to get good data from Japan. We have found that on the west coast, which got hit the hardest, the rates of babies born with defective thyroid glands increased about 17 percent. And we found that infant deaths also increased in the US.
Moreover, there is one study going on in Japan by the Fukushima Medical University. And they have tested thyroid glands, which are very sensitive to radiation of about 250 000 local children. So far, they found two things. One, they found that 46 percent, nearly half and the number of growing, of these children have either a cyst or another type of growth on their thyroid gland, not cancerous but precancerous. And they've also found 75 children with thyroid cancer, which is very rare. In a population like that we would expect about 2-3 cases.
Has everything else been ruled out? Is this definitely linked to Fukushima?
Of course, we will have to look at other potential factors, such as medical care, poverty. But those things don't change in the short period. Those things don't change nine months before, nine months after. But there was one big change – the arrival of substantial amounts of fallout from Japan. And you know that the infants are much more sensitive to radiation than the adults.
Studying infants is just the beginning. If infants may have been harmed, that means adults may have been harmed. The disease does not show up very fast, sometimes it takes years or even decades. In 2009 a book by the Russian scientists led by Alexei Yablokov estimated that in the first 20 years after Chernobyl there were 1 million deaths and the number is still going up. This is what is going to happen in the case of Fukushima.
However, here are some differences with Chernobyl. Number one, in Chernobyl there was one reactor that melted down. In Japan there were three reactors' cores that melted down. Number two, Chernobyl was a new plant and it only operated I think two or three years. In Fukushima these reactors have been operating for well over 30 years and the high-level waste was affected by the meltdown. And the other difference is that, again, Chernobyl was buried within two or three months. In this case it is three years later and it is still not under control and the emissions are continuing, and eventually they are coming across the world.
In March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami slammed the Fukushima nuclear plant causing the meltdown of three reactors.
The day after the disaster hit Japan, the power station began releasing substantial amounts of radioactive materials. The Fukushima accident believed to be the largest since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It was rated level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
Some 160,000 people were displaced due to the nuclear accident. 15,884 people died as a result of the earthquake and tsunami. No immediate radiation exposure fatalities were reported.
In August 2013, the plant's operator TEPCO discovered that nearly 300 tons of highly radioactive water had leaked from a holding tank into the ground.
The radioactive spills still remain one of the most pressing problems and seriously afflict the entire cleanup process.
A few weeks ago, residents of a small district around 12 miles from the Fukushima plant were allowed to return home for the first time since the nuclear disaster.
Read more: voiceofrussia.com/2014_04_19/Unlike-Chernobyl-Fukushima-was-never-brought-under-control-radiation-spreads-across-the-world-epidemiologist-8334/
19 April, 04:31
A manager of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Akira Ono, has admitted that the nuclear disaster handlers are not in full control of the cleanup process. Ono's announcement added to the incessant concerns that the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co has been failing to tackle the numerous problems at the station. Last week, the plant saw another blunder when 203 tons of highly contaminated water were pumped into the wrong building. The Voice of Russia has asked Joseph Mangano, epidemiologist and Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project research group, about the risks from the Fukushima fallout.
Earlier, TEPCO claimed that treatment of contaminated water would be finished by March 2015. Now the plant's operator makes more modest projections and describes the previous deadline as a "tough goal". The Japanese government has been providing TEPCO with funds and equipment, but the company still remains under fire for the way it is handling the consequences of the 2011 nuclear disaster.
A manager of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, Akira Ono, admitted that the nuclear disaster handlers are not in full control of the cleanup process. And actually, it seems that we've been hearing this many times now over the years. Is this anything and what do you make of that statement coming from Akira Ono? Does this perhaps show that the Japanese are now being more frank about the situation at hand?
That is the new part that the truth is starting to come out. But people have known from the beginning that this not only was a huge disaster, but that it was never brought under control, compared to Chernobyl, which was the other major nuclear accident, which was brought control – it was buried and put under a sarcophagus within several months. This is different. This is over three years later. Radiation is still leaking into the air and it is still leaking into the Pacific Ocean and not in small amounts, but in very-very large amounts.
We’ve been hearing about how bad this is and how this is getting into the Pacifi Ocean, and how it is going to contaminate the oceans and the fish, and the risks to the residents and people who actually don't live even near to the Fukushima disaster's site. But could they really have done much more than they have done? That's the question that really seems to be pertinent, because we hear a lot about this and we hear the international community saying that it is being poorly handled. But no one else has really gotten involved in it. What more could have been done?
That's a great question. And I honestly don't have an answer. Maybe TEPCO and the Japanese government have done all they could. I think the key point here is that nuclear reactors are capable of terrible-terrible disasters such as this, which may not be controlled. And the real unfortunate part is that people suffer, people get sick, people die when they are exposed to these very dangerous chemicals.
How many more nuclear plants do we have in sites that have high seismic activity?
Too many. I don't know the exact number, but even if it is one, that is too many.
What countries are they in? I'm just wondering, maybe the world has learnt something from the TAPCO Fukushima disaster.
I'm most familiar with the US. And certainly since 2011 in Fukushima there has been a public report on the number of the US nuclear plants that are located on a seismic fold or are in danger of an earthquake. And I've forgot the exact number. There are 63 plants in the US with 100 reactors. And at least a dozen are on folds.
Are those any safer than the TEPCO plant was?
No!
So, it is pretty much the same situation. It is just that there was no tsunami in the sites that we are talking about, there was no earthquake as of yet.
Right! Whether there is a high chance of an earthquake and tsunami or a low chance, it is still a chance and that makes this very dangerous.
Talking about the international community, it seems like not a lot has been learnt in any case. We haven't seen a huge decrease in the number of plants or plants to even close. I think that Germany was doing something. What about the actual cleaning up of what's left of the TEPCO disaster? Is there anything that the world community can do to assist Japan and will Japan accept that?
I think it is a question more for an engineer or a policy expert. Our expertise is health. And I think that is something that has been largely ignored by the Japanese Government and industry. Our organization is the only one that is publishing medical journal articles on the diseases and death rate after Fukushima.
We've published four of them. In the US it is very hard to get good data from Japan. We have found that on the west coast, which got hit the hardest, the rates of babies born with defective thyroid glands increased about 17 percent. And we found that infant deaths also increased in the US.
Moreover, there is one study going on in Japan by the Fukushima Medical University. And they have tested thyroid glands, which are very sensitive to radiation of about 250 000 local children. So far, they found two things. One, they found that 46 percent, nearly half and the number of growing, of these children have either a cyst or another type of growth on their thyroid gland, not cancerous but precancerous. And they've also found 75 children with thyroid cancer, which is very rare. In a population like that we would expect about 2-3 cases.
Has everything else been ruled out? Is this definitely linked to Fukushima?
Of course, we will have to look at other potential factors, such as medical care, poverty. But those things don't change in the short period. Those things don't change nine months before, nine months after. But there was one big change – the arrival of substantial amounts of fallout from Japan. And you know that the infants are much more sensitive to radiation than the adults.
Studying infants is just the beginning. If infants may have been harmed, that means adults may have been harmed. The disease does not show up very fast, sometimes it takes years or even decades. In 2009 a book by the Russian scientists led by Alexei Yablokov estimated that in the first 20 years after Chernobyl there were 1 million deaths and the number is still going up. This is what is going to happen in the case of Fukushima.
However, here are some differences with Chernobyl. Number one, in Chernobyl there was one reactor that melted down. In Japan there were three reactors' cores that melted down. Number two, Chernobyl was a new plant and it only operated I think two or three years. In Fukushima these reactors have been operating for well over 30 years and the high-level waste was affected by the meltdown. And the other difference is that, again, Chernobyl was buried within two or three months. In this case it is three years later and it is still not under control and the emissions are continuing, and eventually they are coming across the world.
In March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami slammed the Fukushima nuclear plant causing the meltdown of three reactors.
The day after the disaster hit Japan, the power station began releasing substantial amounts of radioactive materials. The Fukushima accident believed to be the largest since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It was rated level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale.
Some 160,000 people were displaced due to the nuclear accident. 15,884 people died as a result of the earthquake and tsunami. No immediate radiation exposure fatalities were reported.
In August 2013, the plant's operator TEPCO discovered that nearly 300 tons of highly radioactive water had leaked from a holding tank into the ground.
The radioactive spills still remain one of the most pressing problems and seriously afflict the entire cleanup process.
A few weeks ago, residents of a small district around 12 miles from the Fukushima plant were allowed to return home for the first time since the nuclear disaster.
Read more: voiceofrussia.com/2014_04_19/Unlike-Chernobyl-Fukushima-was-never-brought-under-control-radiation-spreads-across-the-world-epidemiologist-8334/
so whats happening in the Solomons, is haarp missing its mark?