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The Reality of Nuclear Power
"We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road—the one "less traveled by"—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth."
— Rachel Carson
And to this quote I would add, its people. Let’s look at past events to help guide us safely through the future.
In April 2011 the Fukushima nuclear disaster was raised to severity Level 7 - on a par with Chernobyl. There are seven severity levels; the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) describes a severity Level 7 as: "a major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures".
Proponents of nuclear energy will argue that Fukushima and Chernobyl are nowhere near alike, and some of my own local legislators say neither event could happen here in Missouri – picking the easiest argument that Missouri is a ‘Tsunami free zone’ thereby assuming that the Tsunami alone was the cause for Fukushima and we here in Missouri can rest easy? I think not. The severity level, I believe, summarizes the end result of the disaster and not the cause.
There is an excellent article out this week in the Women News Network that bears reading: http://womennewsnetwork.net/2011/07/13/nuclear-radiation-mothers-japan/
In the article it states, “Current released figures through JAIN – Japan Atomic Industrial Forum show 4,000 millisieverts per hour of radiation on June 4 was measured in Reactor No. 1 through a steam release rising from a crevice in the floor."
So what does this mean? How much radiation is too much? The main fear of radiation is that many of its consequences are seen to be damaging in the long-term. Fukushima isn’t finished yet. The question is: Will there ever be a real end to this current disaster?
Another question is WHY is our nightly news not reporting this? A question I keep asking over and over again.
Please pay special attention to the spent fuel storage comments that occur around the 6:00 mark.
Source of video:
An updated report from Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! interviews two experts about the Japanese nuclear crisis including Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action and Robert Alvarez, former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Energy about the latest on elevated levels of radiation in affected areas surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Mioko Smith also outlines additional dangers to pregnant women and young children from the effects of unsafe levels of radiation, citing a need for additional evaluations. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency recently admitted for the first time that full nuclear meltdowns did occur at three of the plant’s reactors, as it more than doubled its estimate for the amount of radiation that leaked from the plant in the first week of the disaster in March. For the transcript, podcast and more Democracy Now! reports about the Japan disaster, visit http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/10/as_japan_nuclear_crisis_worsens_citizen This 15 minute June 10, 2011 video is a production of Democracy Now!
"As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world."
—Virginia Woolf
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