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Chernobyl
Paul Fusco: Chernobyl Legacy
Magnum Photos has published an on-line photographic essay of Paul Fusco's photographic work in Chernobyl. We published a link to a version of this before, but for those who have not seen it, or in case it is different now, please watch and remember- this is the future Japan is facing if we do nothing to help them.
Chernobyl Legacy l Paul Fusco Magnum Photos (http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl)
Controversy reigns over transparency on animal and bird studies at Fukushima
Once again, the Japanese governement has been called to task for failing to study, or encourage study, of Fukushima's evacuation zone. International researchers have initiated work on bird populations which will be continued in February. The work of Japanese researcher Dr Bin Mori who conducted studies on spiders and insects has not been widely reported. Although, reports of the effects of radiation on the animals of Fukushima did make a brief appearance in the news.
What does seem to be clear is that the area around Fukushima shares far too many similarities to Chernobyl's exclusion zone for comfort. The idea that it will be safe for people to return seems very unlikely. More a product of government wishful thinking and denial than fact.
Please click on links for more information.
Bird Population in Collapse Near Fukushima l Common Dreams 3 february, 2012
An upcoming study shows the future for birds and insect life around Fukushima has been badly damaged, an ominous sign of things to come.
The study, set to be published next week in Environmental Pollution, looked at 14 species of birds common to Fukushima and Chernobyl. David McNeill writes in the Irish Times:
Researchers working in the irradiated zone around the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life.
In the first major study on the impact of the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, the researchers from Japan, the US and Denmark say that analysis of 14 species of birds common to Fukushima and Chernobyl shows the effect on numbers is worse in the Japanese disaster zone. [..]
Timothy Mousseau and Anders Pape Moller say their research there uncovered major negative effects among the local bird population, including reductions in longevity, male fertility and birds with smaller brains.
Many species show “dramatically” elevated DNA mutation rates, developmental abnormalities and extinctions, they add, while insect life has been significantly reduced.
Chernobyl's Lingering Scars
IPPNW Chernobyl Conference Resources
IPPNW Chernobyl Conference Documentation l April 2011
Timebomb Nuclear Power
25 Years after Chernobyl
Urania, Berlin
April 8 – 10, 2011
German affiliate of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Physicians for Social Responsibility in cooperation with the Society for Radiation Protection, the Physicians of Chernobyl, the Scientists Initiative for Peace and Sustainability and the Nuclear Free Future Award.
Chernobyl: The Meltdown
April 26, 1986: 23 minutes, 40 seconds after 1 am, Block 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. For the first time ever, the world witnessed a “maximum credible accident” in a nuclear installation. This disaster changed the world. The Chernobyl catastrophe made millions of people into victims. 180,000 kilograms of highly radioactive material were inside the reactor. The radioactive cloud did not stop at borders, it circled the world. Even now, the effects of the accident are still being suppressed, hushed up and made light of.
Nuclear Energy Kills
Chernobyl opened our eyes to the dangers of nuclear technology. Nuclear energy kills. Not only when there is an accident but also all along the nuclear chain. Even before one single kilowatt of electricity is produced, people are dying. Uranium mining destroys the subsistence for livelihoods of whole populations and their health. Even during “normal operations” an increased danger is present. Childhood leukaemia occurs more frequently in the vicinity of nuclear power plants. Safety deficits are ignored or tolerated. No protection from natural disasters and terror attacks exists. Radioactive waste contaminates our groundwater. We will leave behind a highly radioactive inheritance for future generations for millions of years to come...
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Forest fires around Chernobyl could release radiation, scientists warn
After a steady stream of reassurance last summer that there was no radiation danger as wildfires raged across Russia, a group of international scientists seeks funding for wildfire prevention program to avert "potentially catastrophic wildfires" in Chernobyl's exclusion zone. As several of Russia's more contaminated areas burned, it seemed impossible there would not be releases. It seems that in lieu of this development, a closer look should be taken.
Patrick Evans in Chernobyl l The Guardian 26 April, 2011
A consortium of Ukrainian and international scientists is making an urgent call for a $13.5m (£8.28m) programme to prevent potentially catastrophic wildfires inside the exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl's ruined nuclear power plant.
The fear is that fires in the zone could release clouds of radioactive particles that are, at the moment, locked up in trees, held mainly in the needles and bark of Scots pines.
The consortium says an automated fire detection and monitoring system and new firefighting and forestry equipment are needed to guarantee safe management of Chernobyl's forests.
Since 1992, six years after the nuclear accident at the Ukrainian power plant which released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, there have been more than 1,000 wildfires inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone (CEZ), the 18-mile radius ring around the plant where access restrictions apply.
If there is a catastrophic or "crown" fire (a high-intensity wildfire affecting a large part of the CEZ) radionuclides could be dispersed over a wide area; a big fire could send radioactivity as far as Britain.
Nuclear apologists play shoot the messenger on radiation
Helen Caldicott l theage.com.au 26 April, 2011
George Monbiot and others are distorting evidence of the dangers of exposure.
TWENTY-FIVE years after Chernobyl, many billions of dollars are at stake if the Fukushima reactor meltdowns cause the so-called "atomic renaissance'' to halt or even slow down. This is evident from the nuclear industry's vociferous attacks on its critics.
We see this especially in Australia, where the industry is conducting a whatever-it-takes propaganda campaign to ensure that nothing stands in the way of vast profits to be made from continuing to export uranium; from the plan to establish a radioactive waste dump at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory; and from the industry's desire to dot the continent with reactors.
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 of ''cherry-picking'' data and overstating the health effects of radiation. Yet by reassuring the public that things aren't too bad, Monbiot and others misrepresent and distort the scientific evidence of the harmful effects of radiation exposure.
Their first piece of disinformation is to confuse the effects of external and internal radiation. The former is what populations were exposed to when atomic bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Internal radiation, by contrast, emanates from radioactive elements that enter the body by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Hazardous radioactive elements being released in the sea and air around Fukushima accumulate at each step of various food chains (for example, into algae, crustaceans, small fish, bigger fish, then humans; or soil, grass, cow's meat and milk, then humans). Entering the body, these elements - called internal emitters - migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, continuously irradiating small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years often induce cancer.
Further, many remain radioactive in the environment for long periods, posing danger for future generations...
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Nuclear Disasters Should Be Met with Scientific Inquiry, Not Silence
Remarks on the 25th anniversary of the Nuclear Meltdown at Chernobyl, Ukraine.
IPPNW: Health Effects of Chernobyl 25 years after the reactor catastrophe
In memory of the many dead, acknowledged and denied. In recognition of those who will continue to fall sick, to parts of Ukraine where only 20% of the children are healthy, to the destroyed and mutated landscape of the exclusion zone. To those around the world who have gotten cancer from Chernobyl fallout. To those who will become sick and die because of the accident at Fukushima. May we learn from our mistakes.
On the anniversary of Chernobyl, two links to the IPPNW Report:
Click to open full text:
PDF version: Health Effects of Chernobyl
25 years after the reactor catastrophe
Hypertext version (non-PDF):
UN Chief Issues Nuclear Warning on Chernobyl Visit
While it's a good sign that the UN is publicly acknowledging the dangers of nuclear energy, the Secretary-General"s speech, while moving, still treated the issue of continued nuclear power use as a given. Even as he warned of the failure to adequately assess its risk.
CommonDreams.org l Anya Tsukanova Agence France Presse l 20 April, 2011
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine — The head of the UN warned on a landmark visit to Chernobyl on Wednesday that the Ukrainian tragedy and the recent accident in Japan prompted "painful questions" about the future of atomic power...
"The unfortunate truth is we are likely to see more such disasters. The world has witnessed an unnerving history of nuclear accidents," he said at a conference, calling for a global debate on the safety of nuclear energy.
"To many, nuclear energy looks to be a relatively clean and logical choice in an era of increasing resources' scarcity. Yet the record requires us to ask painful questions: have we correctly calculated its risks and costs?"
