Nuclear Unclear

NUCLEAR UNCLEAR

Over the weekend, I discussed with my fiancé the dilemma I had in revisiting the radiation stories that are coming out of Japan. I was explaining the problem I had with reporting things that I could not confirm and how everything that I am seeing has a sense of urgency that seems to be to the point of “over-warn” and then there are other reports out there that are downplaying that urgency. So the nuclear question gets answered with unclear information and it is hard to find balance when we know that we are being lied to about the radiation.

However, it is important to realize that, despite the radiation levels being reported as being higher than normal along the west coast, life goes on and will continue. This does not mean that the quality of life is going to be rosy or even easier in the future.

My fiancé used to live in the United Kingdom and told me that England has faced the same problems since 1986 with Chernobyl. Now keep in mind the Chernobyl disaster took place nearly 3 decades ago and to this day the United Kingdom, Norway and Sweden have needed to review their restrictions on the eating of mutton since sheep have been found to have been contaminated with Cesium 137.

The Foreigner reported in May 2012 that, “Norway continues to suffer the effects of and be vulnerable to nuclear fallout… animals have been feeding off Norwegian radioactive-laced vegetation… Major quantities of meat had to be destroyed in the years following Chernobyl, with subsequent generations of mushroom and grass-loving sheep having been measured for radioactivity and treated using a method called “foddering down” ever since.”

In 2012, a consultation in the U.K. had finally considered lifting all post-Chernobyl sheep meat restrictions.

However, that does not mean that all farms have escaped the effects of radioactivity and their livelihood still destroyed in the aftermath.

England and surrounding countries have also suffered from the depleted uranium bombings in the Middle East. The highest levels of depleted uranium ever measured in the atmosphere in the U.K., were transported on air currents from the Middle East and Central Asia. Of special significance were those from the Tora Bora bombing in Afghanistan in 2001 and the “Shock & Awe” bombing during Gulf War II in Iraq in 2003. The British government facility that monitored the lethal effects were taken in 2009- 2010 by Halliburton, which refused to release air monitoring data, as required by law.

While life goes on and some say panic is unwarranted because of the fact that people are still living, the effects of all of the radiation gives new meaning to “the living envying the dead.”

When we hear of depleted uranium weaponry we don’t stop and think that, “The word “depleted” is a public relations spin. It makes it sound like the nuclear material is worn out. It’s not. It’s Uranium.”

The 2006 article “The Perfect Monster Kills Quietly” says it best: “Nuclear waste remains radioactive for billions of years, contaminating ground, water and air, causing cancer, birth defects and death, although DU is allegedly “safe” for humans, according to Pentagon scientists“.

Safe even though it is made to kill people? Stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

While life still goes on, the quality of life begins to deteriorate as cancer rates and birth defects have skyrocketed in Iraq. Infertility rates have also sky rocketed as have cases of depression and suicide.

The use of nuclear waste a.k.a. “depleted uranium” and other substances in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot be ruled out as a cause of post-traumatic stress disorder reported by U.S. Coalition and NATO veterans. Veterans who have served in American occupied Iraq and have been involved with the NATO garrison in Afghanistan are coming back home with medical stress and psychological problems but there are undoubtedly more factors involved and we cannot rule out the effects of nuclear waste being used in ordinance.

As Global Research reported in 2006:

“It is now known that Gulf War Syndrome was caused by the large-scale use of depleted uranium against Iraq in 1991. Additionally, about 70% (even possibly more) of Gulf War Veterans have had children born after the Gulf War with mutations, deformities, genetic disorders, and severe medical illnesses.

Causal analysis of the increasing rates of mutation, medical problems, and cancer in both foreign troops and local populations alike in Iraq and Afghanistan indicates that it is the military application of nuclear waste (D.U.) being used against civilian populations and resistance movements that is the cause.”

The idea of immediate panic with regard to Fukushima can be held in reserve for some people because radiation is a silent and slow killer. They just don’t know they are affected by it and they don’t have to deal with it until the reports come in about babies with thyroid problems and blue fin tuna being contaminated.

These reports have come in, and have been kept under the radar by the mainstream media.

While Fukushima is the immediate problem now, we cannot ignore that here at home we have been dealing with radiation dangers and problems that we cannot escape.

Recently in South Carolina, WLTX reported that, “The Department of Health and Environmental Control confirmed to the Governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council that a plume of radioactive Tritium is in the groundwater off the Barnwell site,” a radioactive waste disposal facility.

The International Institute of Concern for Public Health says, “Tritium has multiple pathways to humans: via inhalation and drinking water, through ingestion of food, and absorbed through the skin.”

The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility says, “Like all radioactive substances, tritium is a carcinogen, a mutagen, and a teratogen. Laboratory work with mice and rats has clearly shown that tritium is particularly potent as a mutagen and teratogen.”

Like cesium, once tritium is in the body it doesn’t go away. Tritium is a weak radioactive form of hydrogen, with a half-life of 12.3 years. While it can be agreed that tritium is weak, it does not mean that it can’t cause biological damage to humans, and other life on the earth.

Once again, it is unclear what constitutes a damaging dose of tritium.

The scientific consensus is that every additional exposure to radiation adds to the total biological risk. This means that it all adds up and exposed populations, if they are exposed to other radioactive materials, will begin to see the decline of life expectancy.

Again, the CCNR says, “In the case of developmental damage to unborn babies exposed in the womb, scientists have so far found it impossible to determine what level of exposure to tritium constitutes a “damaging dose”.”

This leaves us with the impression that all doses are a risk and that is why fear is a natural reaction to any report of radioactive contamination.

There never seems to adequate information for the public with regard to radioactive contamination. It is a political issue, a commerce issue and an issue of the power brokers to conceive better press releases to assure the public that nuclear power is the cleanest and the safest energy out there.

However, while we can see under normal circumstances that this is the case, we can use an analogy where we say that air travel is also safe, but if there happens to be a plane crash it then becomes a remarkable anomaly and a foregone conclusion that there will be a lot of fatalities and property damage assessed by insurance companies.

The only problem with the analogy is that planes that crash can be cleaned up and put into the history books as tragic rarities. Nuclear accidents do not go away and while they don’t remain in the headlines, their effects continue to damage the ecosystem and biologically damage human and animal life.

Now, there are also some interesting statistics with regard to the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown in 1979. While death rates for infants, children and elderly soared in the first two years after the incident, the article ‘Three Mile Island – 25 Years Later‘ reports, “Twenty-five years later, there has been no significant rise in cancer deaths among residents living near the Three Mile Island site.”

The Three Mile Island nuclear plant will be decommissioned in April of 2014 after the operating license for the TMI-1 plant expires on that date.

What is unfortunate is that in nearly 70 years of investigating the health risks and effects of radiation and radiation biology we always get an unclear picture as to the risks of radiation doses and biological harm.

Now, as it stands and with reports that vary in intensity and urgency we need to remind ourselves that the Fukushima plants meltdown in 2011 is considered the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl meltdown in Ukraine in 1986.

With that in mind, more radiation was released at Chernobyl, ten times more.

In 2011, the Christian Science Monitor’s Peter Grier asked the question: ‘Was Chernobyl really worse than Fukushima?‘ He wrote that, “Chernobyl shot a plume of radioactive emissions high into the atmosphere. Winds scattered it around the world. It eventually leaked radiation equal to that released by 400 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs.”

Both Chernobyl and Fukushima were level 7 nuclear disasters. The difference between Chernobyl and Fukushima is that Fukushima has raised more social concern because it is the nuclear disaster that has debuted on the Internet. This has sparked a worldwide reevaluation of nuclear-power safety standards and new nuclear-power projects.

It also has shown how countries worldwide have reacted. The overall reaction now is that nuclear power and nuclear power plants are perceived as dangerous and no amount of assurances are going to comfort anyone because TEPCO and the media have been unclear about the risks and the dangers associated with biological contamination. In fact, just look at how many results you get when you Google “TEPCO+unclear“!

You can’t clean up the image of nuclear power and its benefits when unknown clouds of steam are seen rising from the Fukushima Daiichi reactor and the colors of the sky change above the plant as watchdogs view Fukushima cams on the internet.

It is not comforting to hear that at least four out of six reactors have melted down and that the oceans are being contaminated. It is also unclear as to whether or not amounts of cesium 137 and iodine 131 that are close to those that escaped from Chernobyl’s burning core escaped from Fukushima.

It is also unclear as to whether or not comparing Chernobyl and Fukushima is a fair comparison in the first place.

The reason I say this is because if we are to believe that Fukushima released one tenth of the radiation that was released by Chernobyl and Chernobyl’s reactor explosion released the radiation equivalent of 400 Hiroshima bombs then that means that Fukushima released the equivalent of 40.

We all know what one bomb did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We all know what a few bombs did to the residents of Nevada and southern Utah during open air testing and how genetic mutations and onset adult illnesses and cancers have now increased in the children and grandchildren of those exposed.

While I don’t want people to panic in what seems to be a situation that is beyond our control, I certainly don’t want you to kid yourself into thinking that we aren’t going to see some effects from Fukushima and other future disasters.

The future is going to force us to become citizen scientists and active biological researchers in order to survive.

It is being proposed that west coast radiation levels are 500 times the norm and no safety or health alerts have been issued, nor have there been any media reports to advise us on what can be done to help matters.

It makes us wonder if this is all part of the plan to have an attitude of plausible deniability when it comes to being accountable for genetic anomalies and the slow and uneventful deaths of people and the deterioration of the quality of life we have come to expect in the United States.

I guess the clear and present state of the radiation reports can be ignored or even manipulated because it did not happen here. It happened in Japan. We have bombed ourselves many times, we have tested nuclear bombs and have had nuclear disasters and they have come and gone without panic — people have survived. But statistically, we are more prone to cancers and genetic defects.

It is not a matter of if, but when. I am the grandchild and child of nuclear downwinders. I have suffered genetic deficiency and am prone to tumor growth that leads to cancer. I live everyday with a cloud of uncertainty with regard to when I will succumb to it. While I shrug it off and live day to day, in a short time there will be more people that will feel the same way I do.

There is no need for pessimism because we risk our lives every day and our quality of life diminishes with age. We need to have a clear picture of what we are living for and what we wish to accomplish while we still have life.

Source: http://www.groundzeromedia.org/nuclear-unclear/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nuclear-unclear