News Release Archive | nuclear | Accuracy.Org

Fukushima Disaster “Man-Made” — Has the Nuclear Industry Captured the Regulators?

July 5, 2012

Bloomberg BusinessWeek is reporting: “The Fukushima nuclear disaster was the result of ‘man-made’ failures before and after last year’s earthquake, according to a report from an independent parliamentary investigation.”

ARNIE GUNDERSEN, contact at fairewinds.org
Gundersen is a former nuclear industry insider and now an independent consultant, chief engineer with Fairewinds Consulting. He said today: “I am not surprised by the Diet Committee’s conclusion and have been saying the same thing for almost a year. I’ve always felt uncomfortable calling it an accident — it’s a man-mad disaster, a catastrophe. This report confirms that. I applaud the Diet for being so forthright. I met with them while in Japan and they seemed to genuinely want to get to the bottom of things.

“However, beyond the shores of Japan, some people will try to misuse this report to say it can’t happen here. The fact is that it can. Here in the U.S., the industry basically forced out Gregory Jaczko as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And of course, the International Atomic Energy Agency was in Japan. It’s a world-wide problem: the nuclear industry has taken control of the regulators.” See Fairewinds video entitled “Nuclear Oversight Lacking Worldwide”

In February 2012, under contract with Greenpeace, Fairewinds wrote a report titled “The Echo Chamber: Regulatory Capture and the Fukushima Daiichi Disaster.”

KARL GROSSMAN, kgrossman at hamptons.com
Professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, Grossman is author of Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power. He said today: “The Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe was a ‘man-made disaster’ directly attributable to ‘collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco, and the lack of governance by said parties,’ concludes the 10-member Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigations Commission of the National Diet of Japan.

“This sort of collusion between supposed nuclear regulators and those they are supposed to regulate is a worldwide pattern. The nuclear foxes aren’t guarding the nuclear hen house. Regulation is a myth. That’s been the situation in Japan, the U.S. — indeed, in nations all over the globe. The International Atomic Energy Agency, set up to both promote and somehow regulate nuclear power at the same time, represents this atomic dysfunction internationally.”

AILEEN MIOKO SMITH, amsmith at gol.com
Aileen Mioko Smith is executive director of Green Action, a Japanese environmental group. She has been scrutinizing Japanese government claims since the earthquake. In March 1995 she wrote “On Shaky Ground: Will Japan’s Nuke Plants Be Next?”

See executive summary of the Diet report in English.

Tagged With: Aileen Mioko Smith, Arnie Gundersen, Asia, enviroment, Fukushima, Japan, Kral Grossman, nuclear,

Radioactive Tuna in U.S. from Fukushima * “Meltdown at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission”

May 30, 2012

ROBERT ALVAREZ, kitbob at starpower.net
AP is reporting: “Across the vast Pacific, the mighty bluefin tuna carried radioactive contamination that leaked from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant to the shores of the United States 6,000 miles away — the first time a huge migrating fish has been shown to carry radioactivity such a distance.”

Available for a limited number of interviews, Alvarez is a former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Energy and now a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies. He said today: “Radioactive cesium from the Fukushima nuclear accident deposited over 600,000 square-miles of the Pacific, as well as the Northern Hemisphere and Europe. With a half-life of 30 years, cesium-137 mimics potassium as it concentrates in the food chain until it reaches Bluefin Tuna which are at the top. In addition to mercury, Cesium-137 has become another reason why pregnant women, should be discouraged from eating this fish.” Alvarez recently wrote the piece “Why Fukushima Is a Greater Disaster than Chernobyl and a Warning Sign for the U.S.”

KARL GROSSMAN, kgrossman at hamptons.com
Professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, Grossman is author of Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power and Power Crazy. He just wrote the piece “Meltdown at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Denial and the Resignation of Gregory Jaczko,” which states: “The resignation last week of the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is another demonstration of the bankrupt basis of the NRC. Gregory Jaczko repeatedly called for the NRC to apply ‘lessons learned’ from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan. And, for that, the nuclear industry — quite successfully — went after him fiercely.

“The New York Times in an editorial over the weekend said that President Obama’s choice to replace Jaczko, Allison McFarlane, ‘will need to be as independent and aggressive as Dr. Jaczko.’

“That misses the institutional point.

“The NRC was created in 1974 when Congress abolished the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission after deciding that the AEC’s dual missions of promoting and at the same time regulating nuclear power were deemed a conflict of interest. The AEC was replaced by the NRC which was to regulate nuclear power, and a Department of Energy was later formed to advocate for it.

“However, the same extreme pro-nuclear culture of the AEC continued on at the NRC. It has partnered with the DOE in promoting nuclear power.

“Indeed, neither the AEC, in its more than 25 years, nor the NRC, in its nearly 30 years, ever denied an application for a construction or operating license for a nuclear power plant anywhere, anytime in the United States.”

Tagged With: environment, Fukushima, Karl Grossman, nuclear, Robert Alvarez,

* U.S. “Hard Line” on Iran * Egyptian Election

May 25, 2012

GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com
Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy. He has been writing extensively about the Iranian nuclear talks, including the new piece “U.S. Hard Line in Failed Iran Talks Driven by Israel,” which states: “Negotiations between Iran and the United States and other members of the P5+1 group in Baghdad ended in fundamental disagreement Thursday over the position of the P5+1 offering no relief from sanctions against Iran. The two sides agreed to meet again in Moscow Jun. 18 and 19, but only after Iran had threatened not to schedule another meeting, because the P5+1 had originally failed to respond properly to its five-point plan. The prospects for agreement are not likely to improve before that meeting, however, mainly because of an inflexible U.S. diplomatic posture that reflects President Barack Obama’s need to bow to the demands of Israel and the U.S. Congress on Iran policy.”

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS, sharif at democracynow.org, @sharifkouddous
Sharif Abdel Kouddous is Democracy Now! correspondent in Cairo. See his reporting on the election.

JIHAN HAFIZ, fahema22 at gmail.com
Hafiz is The Real News correspondent in Cairo. See her recent reports.

MATTHEW CASSEL, justimage at gmail.com, @justimage
Cassel is an Al-Jazeera journalist in Cairo.

Tagged With: Egypt, Egyptian Elections, Gareth Porter, Iran, Jihan Hafiz, Matthew Cassel, Middle East, nuclear, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,

Iran: * Scuttling Talks * “Un-Declaring War”

May 24, 2012

MUHAMMAD SAHIMI, moe at usc.edu
Sahimi is a professor at the University of Southern California and lead political columnist for the website PBS/Frontline/Tehran Bureau. He just wrote the piece “Intervention Proponents Try to Scuttle Nuclear Talks with Iran,” which states: The prospect of a diplomatic solution has generated deep anxiety among the proponents of military intervention, from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his ideological allies among American neoconservatives. Through periodicals such as the Weekly Standard and Commentary, the editorial pages of the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, and various other media outlets, U.S. advocates of intervention have pursued a campaign aimed at scuttling the upcoming negotiations. I focus here on what I believe to be three central contributors to this campaign — two individual journalists and one Washington-based research institute [the Institute for Science and International Security, headed by David Albright]. …

In the media: First is Associated Press reporter George Jahn. Almost without exception, every time there is positive news about the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, Jahn comes up with an ‘exclusive’ revelation of a dire nature, always provided to him by ‘an official of a country tracking Iran’s nuclear program,’ or ‘an official of a country that has been severely critical of Iran’s nuclear program.’” Sahimi criticizes this use of anonymous sources and questions if the country is Israel. Sahimi writes: “Sometimes the country is referred to as a ‘member of the International Atomic Energy Agency,’ sometimes as a ‘member state.’ Presumably, the hope is that since it is widely known that Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, readers will assume that it is not the source; what is not widely known, however, is that Israel is a member of the IAEA, an odd exception. I will limit my discussion to just two examples from the long list of claims put forward by Jahn. …”

KATE GOULD, kate at fcnl.org
Gould is the legislative associate for Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation and just wrote the piece “Congress ‘Un-Declares’ War with Iran,” which states: “The House was the first chamber to ‘un-declare war,’ with its inclusion of a proviso in the National Defense Authorization Act that this legislation does not authorize war with Iran. This stipulation that ‘nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the use of force against Iran’ is a remarkably sober note of caution and common sense in an otherwise dangerous and reckless piece of legislation. The NDAA allocates billions of dollars of weapons that could be used for an attack on Iran and requires the administration to prepare for war and dramatically escalate the U.S. militarization of the Middle East. Notably, the NDAA exceeds the limitations on Pentagon spending that Congress agreed to in the Budget Control Act by about $8 billion — much of which is allotted for the anti-Iran weaponry. Rep. John Conyers (MI) championed this amendment to ‘un-declare’ war with Iran with a bipartisan group of representatives: Rep. Ron Paul (TX), Rep. Keith Ellison (MN), and Rep. Walter Jones (NC).”

Tagged With: IAEA, Iran, Kate Gould, Middle East, Muhammed Sahimi, nuclear, war,

Breaking: Coordinated Protests Against “Outlaw” Fukushima-Style Nuclear Plant Operator, Arrests Expected in Three States

March 22, 2012

The AP is reporting now: “Protesters marched in Brattleboro against the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant Thursday, the first day of its operation after its initial 40-year operating license expired. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued the plant a 20-year license extension, but the state of Vermont wants the plant to close. … Vermont and New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., the plant owner, have been embroiled in a legal battle over extending the Vernon plant’s 40-year license, which expired Wednesday. A federal judge in January said the Legislature overstepped its bounds in trying to close the plant. The ruling landed the dispute back before state regulators.”

Meanwhile, an affinity group of eight anti-nuclear activists with the New England-based Safe And Green Energy Alliance, today “entered the New Orleans headquarters of U.S. nuclear corporation, Entergy to declare ‘No Nuke Business As Usual on March 22nd’ according to a statement distributed by the SAGE Alliance, which is “demanding that the company cease operations at its Vermont Yankee reactor in Vernon, according to the democratic decision of the State of Vermont and the popular wishes of the Vermont people. The State voted in February 2010 to close the plant on March 21, 2012 when its 40-year license expired.”

The SAGE Alliance statement continued: “The eight protesters, all of whom have ties to New England anti-nuclear activism, some for decades, taped off a corporate ‘crime scene’ at the downtown Entergy building, demanding an audience with Entergy, CEO, J. Wayne Leonard. The request was not granted. The protesters hung banners and yellow crime tape after entering the building. All eight were arrested. It was expected that they would spend 24 hours in jail before being arraigned. A statement by one of the protesters, Renny Cushing can be viewed on YouTube.

“‘I come with the message from Vermont and from New England, that we stand united to oppose nuclear tyranny over our state’s right to self determine a safe and green energy future,’ said Nancy Braus, a resident of Putney, Vermont and a bookstore owner in Brattleboro. ‘Our simple trespass is our statement of resistance to Entergy’s corporate trespass with the continued illegal operation of this nuclear waste factory,’ she said.

“Vermont Yankee is the same GE Mark I Boiling Water Reactor design as the four Fukushima Daiichi reactors that exploded and melted down in the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan.

“‘Entergy’s assault against democracy and the people of Vermont makes it a corporate outlaw,’ said Renny Cushing, a founding member of the Clamshell Alliance in New England that launched the anti-nuclear movement in the U.S. in July 1976 with The Declaration of Nuclear Resistance. ‘We have a responsibility to our families and our communities to resist Entergy’s recklessness, arrogance and greed. The corporation’s management and shareholders need to recognize that if Entergy won’t shut down that Yankee Plant, then as citizens we will work together to shut down Entergy,’ Cushing said.

“Entergy has challenged the State of Vermont in federal court over the state’s decision to close the reactor. On Jan. 19, 2012, a federal judge found mainly in Entergy’s favor but the state has appealed. The federal government, represented by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, issued the Vermont Yankee a 20-year license extension on March 21, 2011, just ten days into the Fukushima nuclear disaster, despite the plant’s history of fires, radioactive leaks, structural collapses, and cover-ups. Entergy also owns reactors in Arkansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, and New York.

“The occupation of Entergy’s New Orleans headquarters came at the same time as protesters in Brattleboro, Vt. gathered at Entergy offices there. Five Vermont activists were arrested today during a similar non-violent protest action took place at the Entergy regional headquarters in White Plains, N.Y. On March 21, seven women protesters chained shut the gates at Vermont Yankee while Buddhist monks and others chanted and sang in opposition to the reactor’s continued operation.”

Contacts:
In Washington, D.C.:
LINDA GUNTER, linda at beyondnuclear.org

Currently in New Orleans, Entergy headquarters:
NANCY BRAUS
RENNY CUSHING, rrcushing at earthlink.net

In Vermont:
KEVIN KAMPS, kevin at beyondnuclear.org

Tagged With: Kevin Kamps, Linda Gunter, Nancy Braus, nuclear, Renny Cushing,

One Year Later: “Freeze Our Fukushimas”

March 9, 2012

LINDA GUNTER, linda at beyondnuclear.org
KEVIN KAMPS, kevin at beyondnuclear.org
CINDY FOLKERS, cindy at beyondnuclear.org
Gunter, Kamps and Folkers are with the group Beyond Nuclear which is launching a “Freeze Our Fukushimas” campaign “to permanently suspend the operations of the most dangerous class of reactors operating in the United States today: the 23 General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors, the same flawed design as those that melted down at Fukushima-Daiichi in Japan.”

CECILE PINEDA, cecilep at att.net
Pineda is author of the novel Devil’s Tango: How I Learned the Fukushima Step by Step, which is to be released March 11, a year after the Fukushima disaster. The book “is a one-woman whirlwind tour of the nuclear industry, seen through the lens of the industrial and planetary crisis unfolding most visibly right now in Japan. As much personal journal as investigative journalism, the author’s journal entries trace her own and the world’s evolution of consciousness during the first year following the March 11, 2011 disaster. Pineda keeps track, day-by-day, of worsening developments at Fukushima Daiichi, and records the daily evolution of her perceptions.”

Tagged With: Cecile Pineda, Cindy Folkers, Fukushima, Kevin Kamps, nuclear,

Is U.S. “Counter-Terrorism” Pushing Pakistan to Brink?

July 14, 2011

AP reports “Gen. David Petraeus, the outgoing U.S. commander in Afghanistan [and incoming CIA director], and his soon-to-be successor met with top military leaders in Pakistan on Thursday.” Meanwhile, the head of Pakistani intelligence, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, is in Washington, D.C. meeting with top U.S. officials.

FRED BRANFMAN, fredbranfman at aol.com
Branfman just wrote “Obama’s Secret Wars: How Our Shady Counter-Terrorism Policies Are More Dangerous Than Terrorism.” Branfman is best known for having exposed the U.S. and CIA secret war in Laos.

He said today: “Although packaged as involving only ‘surgical’ strikes, the U.S. ‘counter-terrorism strategy’ already involves tens of thousands of ‘special operations’ troops and thousands of drones in six Muslim countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen. Seven thousand U.S. troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq alone are engaged in round-the-clock assassinations.

“The Los Angeles Times reported on President Obama’s new ‘National Strategy for Counterterrorism’ released on June 29, writing that ‘John Brennan, President Obama’s counter-terrorism advisor, said in a speech that … [in Afghanistan and Pakistan] the U.S. has been delivering ‘precise and overwhelming force’ against militants [and] ‘there hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities that we’ve been able to develop.’

“In Pakistan, perhaps the major laboratory for U.S. ‘counter-terrorism’ strategy to date, any success in killing 56 named ‘al-Qaeda leaders’ out of a total of 1,900 victims of drone attacks, which includes many civilians unlike Mr. Brennan’s delusional claims, must be weighed against the fact that U.S. policy has contributed to a vast increase in overall militant strength. U.S. drone strikes and pressure on the Pakistani military to attack tribal areas have driven many militants east into Karachi and the Punjabi heartland, vastly increasing their numbers and creating countless new potential suicide bombers, unifying militant groups and seeing incidents of reported terrorism quadruple from an annual average in 2004-8 of 470 to 1723 in 2009-10.

“U.S. ‘counter-terrorism’ has also increased a growing nuclear threat: U.S. ‘counter-terror’ drone strikes have contributed to 59 percent of Pakistanis — over 110 million people — now regarding the U.S. as their ‘enemy.’ This virulently anti-U.S. public opinion, according to former U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson, is the main reason the Pakistani government has refused to cooperate with the U.S. in safeguarding its nuclear stockpile, the world’s fastest growing and least secure; increasing danger of a pro-extremist military coup. Although critics are correct in criticizing a corrupt and duplicitous Pakistani government and military, the incontrovertible fact is that the focus on U.S. ‘counter-terrorism’ is making the situation there far, far worse and increasing the likelihood of a coup that would be devastating to U.S. interests.”

Branfman’s previous articles include “WikiLeaks Exposes the Danger of Pakistan’s Nukes.”

Tagged With: counter-terrorism, nuclear, Pakistan, terrorism,

Japan Nuclear Disaster: Danger for U.S.

May 18, 2011

A New York Times piece titled “In Japan Reactor Failings, Danger Signs for the U.S.” reports: “Emergency vents that American officials have said would prevent devastating hydrogen explosions at nuclear plants in the United States were put to the test in Japan — and failed to work, according to experts and officials with the company that operates the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant….

“The improved venting system at the Fukushima plant was first mandated for use in the United States in the late 1980s as part of a ‘safety enhancement program’ for boiling-water reactors that used the Mark I containment system, which had been designed by General Electric in the 1960s. Between 1998 and 2001, Tokyo Electric followed suit at Fukushima Daiichi, where five of six reactors use the Mark I design.”

ARNIE GUNDERSEN, arnie at fairewinds.com, fairewinds.com
Gundersen is a former nuclear industry insider and now an independent consultant. He said today: “The U.S. Mark 1 Designs are just as vulnerable to containment failures as Fukushima. I have argued this point with the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] for the last six years, and the NRC continues to assume that the probability of containment leakage is zero.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Japan Nuclear Disaster: Danger for U.S.

Interviews Available

ARNIE GUNDERSEN, (802) 865-9955, arnie@fairewinds.com, http://fairewinds.com
Gundersen is a former nuclear industry insider and now an independent consultant. He said today: “The U.S. Mark 1 Designs are just as vulnerable to containment failures as Fukushima. I have argued this point with the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] for the last six years, and the NRC continues to assume that the probability of containment leakage is zero.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: The U.S. Economy Tagged With: enviornment, nuclear,

Japan Disaster to Level Seven: “The Explosion of Nukespeak”

April 12, 2011

The Japanese government has raised the emergency at the Fukushima nuclear plant to level seven, from a level five. This puts it at the highest level, as was Chernobyl.

KARL GROSSMAN
Grossman and others have been advocating raising the emergency level as a first step for weeks. Professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, Grossman is author of Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power and Power Crazy.

He said today: “Finally, the Japanese government is acknowledging a little reality. But the sad fact is that the Fukushima disaster is beyond a level seven disaster, it’s off the books. You have multiple reactors and cooling pools.

Grossman just wrote the piece “Fukushima Nuclear Disaster at One Month: The Explosion of Nukespeak,’” which states: “The classic book on disinformation on nuclear technology is Nukespeak, published in 1982. It is dedicated to George Orwell, author of 1984, and written by Stephen Hilgarten, Richard C. Bell and Rory O’Connor.

“It opens by declaring that ‘the history of nuclear development has been profoundly shaped by the manipulation through official secrecy and extensive public-relations campaigns. Nukespeak and the use of information-management techniques have consistently distorted the debate over nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Time and time again, nuclear developers have confused their hopes with reality, publicly presented their expectations and assumptions as facts, covered up damaging information, harassed and fired scientists who disagreed with established policy, refused to recognize the existence of problems … claimed that there was no choice but to follow their policies.’”

See: IPA news release “Chernobyl Experts: Fukushima Could be Worse” from March 23.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

As Japan Disaster Spreads, Threatening U.S., Obama Embraces Nuclear Power

March 31, 2011

ARJUN MAKHIJANI
Available for a limited number of interviews, Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, which has released a series of papers on the Japan nuclear disaster. The most recent is titled “Radioactive Iodine Releases from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Reactors May Exceed Those of Three Mile Island by Over 100,000 Times.”

AILEEN MIOKO SMITH
Aileen Mioko Smith is executive director of Green Action, a Japanese environmental group. She happens to be visiting California, where she is scheduled to be until April 12. She has been stating from the beginning of the crisis that the Japanese government has not been sharing critical information with the public. She is analyzing the situation and has been translating reports and posting other information at: fukushima.greenaction-japan.org.

She said today: “We would like to have the international community sanction the Japanese government for wantonly raising the level of contamination allowed for Fukashima citizens. Up until now, it had certain standards for food from the area, but is working to change those standards to make things appear OK. What the government should be doing is broadening the official evacuation zone.”

HARVEY WASSERMAN
Wasserman is author of Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth, AD 2030 (which includes an introduction by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.). Wasserman recently wrote the piece “‘Safe’ Radiation is a Lethal TMI Lie.” He is posting regularly at: nukefree.org/news/Nuke.

KARL GROSSMAN
Professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, Grossman is author of Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power and Power Crazy. He just wrote the piece “Obama’s Wrongheaded Nuclear Stance — After Japan Disaster,” which states: “President Barack Obama’s support this week for the construction of more nuclear power plants in the United States, amid the ongoing nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, must be considered as among the most wrongheaded and irrational positions ever taken by a U.S. president, against stiff competition.

“As a candidate for president, Obama knew about the deadly dangers of nuclear power. ‘I start off with the premise that nuclear energy is not optimal and so I am not a nuclear energy proponent,’ Obama said at a campaign stop in Newton, Iowa on December 30, 2007. ‘My general view is that until we can make certain that nuclear power plants are safe … I don’t think that’s the best option. I am much more interested in solar and wind and bio-diesel and strategies [for] alternative fuels.’”

Grossman added: “The claim being disseminated by media of ‘no immediate danger’ from the spread now worldwide of radioactivity from the ongoing nuclear power disaster in Japan is outrageous. Any amount of radioactivity can kill, as has now been widely acknowledged by organizations involved in research on radiation. The media coverage overall of the catastrophe has been barely passable to dreadful. It’s been full of journalistic ignorance (the repeated reports, for example, that potassium iodide pills will ‘block radioactivity’ when, in fact, they block only radioactive iodine, one of hundreds of radioactive poisons) and the presentation of nuclear promoters as ‘experts’ (making declarations such as one ‘expert’ on PBS NewsHour saying the plutonium discharges in Japan are ‘actually typical of natural plutonium contamination in this country.’ There’s no ‘natural plutonium contamination’ in the U.S. — plutonium is man-made. Journalists desperately need to know the facts about nuclear technology — and not be bamboozled, as is the current media situation.”

Background: From the New Scientist: “Fukushima radioactive fallout nears Chernobyl levels,” which states: “Japan’s damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has been emitting radioactive iodine and caesium at levels approaching those seen in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of radiation detectors — designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests — to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Filed Under: Resources: Trade, World Bank, IMF Tagged With: nuclear,

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