Time-Lapse Video of Japan’s 19,349 earthquakes in 2011

By Monoroch.net

Stunning visualization and audio representation of the 19,349 earthquakes registering at least M3.0 that occurred in Japan during 2011:

Thyroid cancer, fracking and nuclear power

By Rady Ananda
An Activist Post Special Report

Thyroid cancer cases have more than doubled since 1997 in the U.S., while deadly industrial practices that contaminate groundwater with radiation and other carcinogens are also rising.

New information released by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that 56,460 people will develop thyroid cancer in 2012 and 1,780 will die from it.

That’s up from 16,000 thyroid cancer cases in 1997 – a whopping 253% increase in fifteen years, while the US population went up only 18%.

10 Most Radioactive Places on Earth

By Brains.org

While the 2011 earthquake and worries surrounding Fukushima have brought the threat of radioactivity back into the public consciousness, many people still don’t realize that radioactive contamination is a worldwide danger. Radionuclides are in the top six toxic threats as listed in the 2010 report by The Blacksmith Institute, an NGO dedicated to tackling pollution. You might be surprised by the locations of some of the world’s most radioactive places — and thus the number of people living in fear of the effects radiation could have on them and their children.

Protective flood berm collapses at Ft Calhoun nuclear plant; KSU has radioactive leak

Highlighted in yellow above, the protective berm is a water filled “AquaDam” that collapsed early Sunday morning. (Extra large size image here.)

By Rady Ananda

Overwhelmed by the rising Missouri River, a 2000-foot stretch of a protective water balloon, surrounding the Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant in Nebraska, collapsed at 1:25 AM on Sunday, June 26.

Two days earlier, Kansas State University reported an emergency when radiation leaked at 149 times the Derived Air Concentration (DAC) limit for Iodine during a trial run of its reactor.

Strengthen the No-Nuke Movement with Directed Energy Weapon Discussion

With the recent revelation by the Associated Press that 75% of U.S. nuclear reactors leak radioactive material, and with several reactors along the flooded plains of the Missouri and Mississippi River Basins currently threatened, this speech at a recent European conference opposing nuclear energy makes a timely appeal for a broader coalition of movements to strengthen each. ~Ed.

By Wayne Hall
June 19, 2011 Speech
at Journees d’Etudes
Toulouse, France

Because I have only a few minutes to say what I have to say I would like to point out that I see the discussion of directed energy weapons as a discussion with the potential to strengthen the anti-nuclear movement generally. Some terrible accusations are being made about the role of directed energy weapons in the disaster that has occurred in Japan and is now irradiating the entire planet.  If it turns out that the Fukushima disaster is the result of a deliberate criminal action, this should greatly mobilize both the anti-nuclear movement and society as a whole.  Or at least that is my hypothesis.  Perhaps some may wish to dispute it. If it turns out merely that criminal actions of this kind have occurred on other recent occasions and could therefore now occur at any moment and anywhere, that, too, is surely something which the anti-nuclear movement should not ignore.

Midwest floods heighten nuclear power plant crisis

Ft Calhoun Spent Fuel In Ground Pools, Flooded Already?

By Tom Burnett
Rense.com

Ft. Calhoun is the designated spent fuel storage facility for the entire state of Nebraska…and maybe for more than one state.*

Calhoun stores its spent fuel in ground-level pools which are underwater anyway – but they are open at the top. When the Missouri river pours in there, it’s going to make Fukushima look like an x-ray. But that’s not all. There are a LOT of nuclear plants on both the Missouri and Mississippi and they can all go to hell fast.

BTW, US plants hold about four times OVER capacity in their spent fuel pools PLUS all the new and recently removed fuel from Calhoun…the plant was officially being refueled.

Italians vote No Nukes; for public water; and full prosecution of Pres. Berlusconi

By Alan Fisher
AlJazeera English

Italians were celebrating in Rome after voters dealt premier Silvio Berlusconi a serious political blow on Monday, overturning laws passed by his government to revive nuclear energy, privatise the water supply and help him avoid prosecution.

Italians, not government, to decide on nukes and water privatization

From bad to worse as grip on nation slips further out of Berlusconi’s hands
By Paola Totaro
Sydney Morning Herald

They say bad things come in threes and for Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s Prime Minister, the week brought the full quota of political misfortune.

On Monday Mr Berlusconi, 74, once seen as untouchable and invincible, witnessed Italy’s regional governments, including his home city of Milan, fall to a phalanx of communist mayors, some of them former lawyers and anti-corruption prosecutors – the very types he most hates.

How Nuclear Apologists Mislead the World over Radiation

George Monbiot: From environmentalist to nuclear industry shill

By Helen Caldicott
The Guardian

Soon after the Fukushima accident last month, I stated publicly that a nuclear event of this size and catastrophic potential could present a medical problem of very large dimensions. Events have proven this observation to be true despite the nuclear industry’s campaign about the “minimal” health effects of so-called low-level radiation. That billions of its dollars are at stake if the Fukushima event causes the “nuclear renaissance” to slow down appears to be evident from the industry’s attacks on its critics, even in the face of an unresolved and escalating disaster at the reactor complex at Fukushima.

Proponents of nuclear power – including George Monbiot, who has had a mysterious road-to-Damascus conversion to its supposedly benign effects – accuse me and others who call attention to the potential serious medical consequences of the accident of “cherry-picking” data and overstating the health effects of radiation from the radioactive fuel in the destroyed reactors and their cooling pools. Yet by reassuring the public that things aren’t too bad, Monbiot and others at best misinform, and at worst misrepresent or distort, the scientific evidence of the harmful effects of radiation exposure – and they play a predictable shoot-the-messenger game in the process.

Nuke power deadliest, costliest form of energy on record

The Dirt on Nuclear Power

By Benjamin Sovacool
Project Syndicate

Not counting the Fukushima catastrophe, there has been more than one nuclear incident and $330 million in damage every year, on average, for the past three decades, writes Dr Benjamin Sovacool.

Japan’s nuclear crisis is a nightmare, but it is not an anomaly. In fact, it is only the latest in a long line of nuclear accidents involving meltdowns, explosions, fires, and loss of coolant – accidents that have occurred during both normal operation and emergency conditions, such as droughts and earthquakes.

40-yr-old NY nuke plant in fault zone fails safety inspection, seeks exemptions

By Russia Today

According to the New York Attorney General, the nuclear power plant at Indian Point has sought over 100 exemptions from the fire safety code which may make it extremely difficult to secure the nearly 40-year old facility in an emergency.

The aging plant provides about 30 percent of New York City’s electrical power is now a target of state regulators, who hope to block Entergy Corp from extending plant operations further.

NYCrimes says plutonium is safe

Betraying Humanity

By Dr Mark Sircus
International Medical Veritas Assn.

“I think there is a role for safe nuclear power,” says Dr. David J. Brenner directs the Center for Radiological Research. He is the expert brought out by the New York Times to confuse everyone. Is there really such a thing as safe nuclear power? How anyone can say that after this latest nuclear accident is beyond comprehension.

Brenner knows that radiation kills people and has even calculated how many people a year the United States Government is killing with their airport radiation scanners. He calculates 100 people die and has testified before Congress about this danger and harm.

The Times tells us that he has published research showing that CT scans increase the cancer risk in children. Dr. Brenner believes, as all true blue scientists do, that even low doses increase the risk of cancer, and that there is no “safe” level or threshold below which the risk does not rise. “But for all his concern about potential harm from radiation, he does not foresee a public health disaster resulting from the crisis at Fukushima Daiich,” the Times had the audacity to print.

The Truth About Nuclear Power – Too Dangerous to Tell

Michael Collins

A poster at The Agonist, Joaquin, published an elegant and important analysis this weekend. His tightly packed, brief post made three key points. We’re headed for an ugly future with nuclear power based on shortages and future fuel cycles more volatile than those imploding and exploding in Japan. Governments, the nuclear industry, and the media are avoiding this issue entirely. As a result, the rulers and technocrats who got us to the latest meltdown cannot be trusted to make any more decisions about energy needs. (Image)

“The truth is, there is a big fat lie that the nuclear power industry and the media are foisting on the public and that has not changed.” Joaquin

“What is it”, the big fat lie, Joaquin asks.

The Nuclear Nightmare Continues: Interview with Helen Caldicott

By Alex Smith
Radio Ecoshock

Caldicott March 25

In this Radio Ecoshock program you get a major interview with world-famous anti-nuclear campaigner Dr. Helen Caldicott after the Fukushima Japan nuclear accident. Red hot. Covering nuclear power threats in Japan, the United States, Canada, France, and Europe generally, plus much more.

Prof. Gordon Edwards on the perils of nuclear technology, uranium mining, and weapons proliferation

Interviewed by Dr Helen Caldicott
If You Love This Planet radio show

“A nuclear reactor is not really producing electricity so much as it is producing two things: long-lived nuclear waste which lasts for millions of years and plutonium which lasts for many thousands of years. The electricity is just a little drop in the bucket. It’s a little flash in the pan. You get electricity for maybe 20 or 30 years if you’re lucky, then you have plutonium forever.”

Dr. Gordon Edwards, one of Canada’s best known independent experts on nuclear technology, uranium, and weapons proliferation is also the co-founder of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR). He was instrumental in bringing about a halt to uranium exploration in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia. Dr. Edwards was awarded the 2006 Nuclear-Free Future Award in the Education Category, and in 2009 he addressed the annual meeting of Physicians for Global Survival in Ottawa.

Explosion and Fire at 4th Nuclear Reactor; Japan Says High Levels of Radiation Being Released

By Washington’s Blog

Kyodo News noted earlier that Reactor Number 4 has caught fire:

The Herald Sun reported:

“RADIATION levels near a quake-stricken nuclear plant are now harmful to human health, Japan’s government says after explosions and a fire at the facility.

“’There is no doubt that unlike in the past, the figures are the level at which human health can be affected,’ said chief government spokesman Yukio Edano….

“Although the number-four reactor was shut for maintenance when the quake and tsunami struck last Friday, “spent nuclear fuel in the reactor heated up, creating hydrogen and triggered a hydrogen explosion”.

Third Explosion at Fukushima – Reactor Unit 2

By Brad Blog

LATEST: Radiation at plant ‘3 times normal levels’ | Explosion heard in suppression chamber (unlike previous explosions); All but ‘critical’ workers evacuated | Fuel rods half exposed (2.7 meters); Concern that core containment vessel may have been damaged… blast was in bottom of vessel, indicating something wrong in last line of defense. Nuclear expert says plunge in pressure means there could be damage to vessel – the last line of defense. Very serious.

Countdown to Zero: Propaganda for War on Iran

 

reddit or digg it

By Rady Ananda 

Seductive, fascinating and frightening, Countdown to Zero motivates the public to support complete nuclear disarmament and to fear Iran, which is conveniently the next country the US wants to invade. Framed in no-nuke rhetoric, Countdown to Zero is not-so-subtle agitprop. The film relies on conventional geopolitics to whip up conventional audiences into another conventional state of panic. Islamo-terrorists just can’t acquire this technology! This is painfully similar to what we were told prior to the invasion of Iraq. 

Climate Bill Is a Misnomer: It’s a Nuclear Energy-Promoting, Oil Drilling-Championing, Coal Mining-Boosting Gift to Polluters

By Tyson Slocum
Public Citizen

After half a year of delay, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are set to release their nuclear energy/cap-and-trade bill today. Until we see legislative text, we can comment only on the broad outline made available yesterday and an additional summary being circulated among legislative staff.

It’s not accurate to call this a climate bill. This is nuclear energy-promoting, oil drilling-championing, coal mining-boosting legislation with a weak carbon-pricing mechanism thrown in. What’s worse, it guts the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current authority to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

First, Do No Harm

BUZZ THIS

By Robert C. Koehler

As Planet Earth continues to hemorrhage crude oil from its wound — with a worst-case estimate of as much as 100,000 barrels a day — we grope, beyond our anger and guilt, simply to imagine what damage we have done in the pursuit of human empowerment.

This is bigger than BP, blameworthy though the company may be. This is bigger than any sort of “us vs. them” scenario we can think of. It’s a crisis of civilization, which means all of us.