Tuesday 22 November 2011

URGENT! Stop the Burning of Fukushima Daiichi's Radioactive Rubble

We MUST Protect Children and Future Generations Worldwide!


FACT 1 : Radioactive debris is ready to be shipped all over Japan.

FACT 2 :1,000 tons of contaminated rubble will be brought to Tokyo by train at the end of October, 2011. It will be BURNED and DUMPED into TOKYO BAY.

We are writing this letter in support of a network of thousands of mothers across Japan who fear the devastation resulting from the tsunami on March 11th and the grossly negligent government policies since its occurrence. We believe the government's negligence will have more adverse consequences than the already catastrophic impact of the tsunami and resulting radiation exposure. An almost certain rise in cancer rates for millions of people is the best case scenario from the continued leakage from Fukushima Daiichi reactors No. 1, 2, 3, and 4. It is our intention to limit the exposure of human beings to this risk to the greatest extend possible.

Statement of Purpose. It is the belief of the undersigned that the dangerous radioactive rubble at Fukushima Power Plants and the other areas around must be left at the site of the disaster. Efforts must be focused on ending the ongoing fires at the plant, and people should be evacuated from the immediate area in accordance with radiation levels set before March 11th. All recent Japanese Government policy changes to increase allowable radiation levels must be overturned to pre-disaster levels.

Today Japanese government is systematically spreading radioactive material, publicly hosting events to eat food from Fukushima as a patriotic act, raising radiation safe standard for food and rubble alike. For example in Japan today food reading 499 bq/kg can be legally distributed in the market without any label for consumers. Similarly has twice raised allowable levels of radiation for rubble which they will now ship across the country to be burned and dumped into the ocean at locations including Tokyo Bay. This negligent behavior must be stopped or an already devastating event will turn into an historic environmental disaster with international reach. The Japanese Environmental Ministry estimates 23.82 million tons of rubble resulted from the March disaster in the coastal areas of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures. This rubble is one of many obstacles that Japanese are facing, because they must remove the rubble in order to rebuild their lives. If the rubble piled up everywhere were not a big enough problem for the government, there is the added fact that much of this rubble contains radioactive material from the nuclear spill.

Tokyo’s local government officially accepted 1,000 tons of rubble from Iwate, they will transport the debris on trains and burn it and use the ashes as landfill in Tokyo Bay starting at the end of October, 2011. Iwate Prefectural government estimates indicate that the rubble contains 133 bq/kg of radioactive material. This would have been illegal before March but the Japanese Government changed the safety level for rubble from 100 bq/kg to 8000 bq/kg in July, 2011, then again to 10,000 bq/kg in October. Tokyo officials announced that they will accept 500,000 tons of rubble in total.

In the same Iwate prefecture, On August 12th, 2011, 1130 bq/kg readings were detected on firewood (on surface bark) , and the Kyoto local authority who was going to burn it for a popular religious event decided not to do so because of the contamination.

It is difficult to accurately speculate about the consequences of these government actions, but no one can argue that a huge environmental gamble is being waged.

The problem is not restricted to the Tokyo area, which is geographically near the impacted areas. The governor of Tokyo stated that he hopes this would encourage other local authorities to accept rubble. The Minister of the Environment, Mr. Hosono, said in a September 4, 2011 press conference that "it is the consideration of the national government [or as Japan as the nation] to share the pain of Fukushima with everyone [or everywhere] in Japan," reiterating his intention to create a final processing facility outside Fukushima Prefecture for debris and dirt from near the nuclear accident to be burned. If many other local governments in Japan decide to follow Tokyo’s lead it will cause areas where are not yet directly impacted by the radioactive spill to contaminate their local soil and water.

We are asking you to please discourage the Japanese government from spreading, burning and dumping rubble from contaminated areas. It should be left on site and people should be evacuated from those areas according to the standards in place before March 11th. It is the opinion of the undersigned that, if allowed to proceed, we will witness an historic error conducted by the Japanese government that will negatively impact human lives for hundreds of years. The alternative is that we act immediately to prevent this unnecessary outcome, and history will remember this only as the time that Fukushima Daiichi region was rendered uninhabitable rather than a worse, if uncertain, alternative.

Initiator : One World No Nukes [NY,USA] --http://www.oneworldnonukes.org/

Endorsers : Bianca Jagger [UK] Helen Caldicott Foundation [AUSTRALIA] Todos Somos Japon [NY,USA] SHUT TOMARI [Hokkaido, JAPAN] Save Fukushima Children [Hokkaido, JAPAN] OKATON [Osaka, JAPAN] KansaiFuture [Osaka, JAPAN] SHINENTAI [Osaka, JAPAN] RadiationTruth.org [NY, USA] Team Coco [Fukushima, JAPAN] C.A.N. Coalition Against Nukes [USA] Protection of Children from Radiation Daito Network [Osaka, JAPAN] Green Action [Kyoto, Japan] Rete Nazionale Antinucleare [ITALY] Abolition 2000 NY Metro [NY, USA] DiaNuke.org [INDIA] Rock The Reactors [CT, USA] Nuclear Information and Resource Service [Washington DC,USA] Shut Down Indian Point Now! [NY, USA] Street Corner Resources [Harlem NY, USA] Beyond Nuclear [MD, USA] Ecological Options Network [CA, USA] Joanna Macy, PhD [CA, USA] Time's Up! Environmental Organization [NY, USA]



Go Here To Sign Online: http://tinyurl.com/5wc73fl


MANAGING RADIOACTIVE WASTES SAFELY HALLOWEEN SPECIAL



The Scariest Halloween Story is the one where the nasties appear as respectable types who say "Don't Worry Everything is OK!" The viewer has a hunch that there will be an inevitable doom laden slide to a scary
ending.

With nice timing for the scary Halloween season the Managing Radioactive Wastes Safely Partnership have produced a draft consultation document which will be used to continue promoting the "steps towards geological disposal" of high level nuclear wastes in Cumbria's leaky geology.

The document which will be discussed in Egremont this thursday says:

"We wanted to be 'confident in the integrity of the BGS (British Geological Society) screening work/report'.

Our initial opinions are:

BGS study. We are confident in the integrity of the BGS screening report because it has been endorsed by two independent reviewers and there is no significant criticism of the study's integrity from elsewhere".

http://www.westcumbriamrws.org.uk/meetings_more.asp?news_id=30

Really? "No significant Criticism" ?

What about the significant criticism from:

The Nirex Inspector
http://www.nuclearwasteadvisory.co.uk/news-and-events/news/nirex-inquiry-inspector-attacks-nda/

Members of the original Committee on Radioactive Waste Management
http://www.nuclearwasteadvisory.co.uk/news-and-events/news/letter-from-corwm-members-on-new-build-waste/

Dr Helen Wallace- author of the Rock Solid? Scientific review
http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/1052

Dr Rachel Western - former employee of Nirex- researcher for Cumbrian

Friends of the Earth groups
http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/943

Professor David Smythe - former employee of Nirex
http://www.davidsmythe.org/nuclear/nuclear.htm

Tim Farron MP

http://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/great-pyramids-spoil-heaps-in-cumbria/



There are many more significant criticisms!


http://101-uses-for-a-nuclear-power-station.blogspot.com/2011/10/mrws-halloween-special.html

The good news is that unlike the viewer or reader of a scary Halloween

story, Cumbria has the wherewithal to stop the slide into the unfathomable

void.