Monday, November 30, 2015

When the facts all point to one conclusion: "No More Nukes"

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev
About 9 months ago I wrote a post about the Reagan-Gorbachev meeting in Iceland, and I said that, "what Reykjavich does tell us is: Obama and Putin need to sit down together and talk total nuclear disarmament."

Two days ago, in one of my posts after returning from the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima, I talked about the fact that activists need to master the scientific data about nuclear radiation - including that from nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

During my time in Hiroshima, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to talk with the forum's keynote speaker, Dr. Tilman Ruff, about these issues. When we talked about Reykjavich, Dr. Ruff told me about the key role played by physicians who met with Gorbachev and laid out the science for him. Dr. Ruff has generously compiled the references to that story - which I share here . . . .

Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev commented in an interview in 1994 that when he received control over the Soviet nuclear arsenal: “Perhaps there was an emotional side to it…. But it was rectified by my knowledge of the might that had been accumulated. One-thousandth of this might was enough to destroy all living things on earth. And I knew the report on ‘nuclear winter.’” In "Mikhail Gorbachev explains what's rotten in Russia” (Mark Hertsgaard, Salon.com, Sept. 7, 2000), he said,“Models made by Russian and American scientists showed that a nuclear war would result in a nuclear winter that would be extremely destructive to all life on Earth; the knowledge of that was a great stimulus to us, to people of honor and morality, to act in that situation.”

Gorbachev credited International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) with his decision to halt nuclear testing and reach agreements to reduce nuclear arms with the US:

“I admire both your movement and its work … We take into account the activities of your movement in shaping our foreign policy” (M Gorbachev, communication to IPPNW, 2 June 1987)

"I want to thank you for your great contribution to preventing nuclear war. Without it and other effective antinuclear initiatives this [INF] Treaty would probably have been impossible.” (Mikhail Gorbachev 1993)

“Their work commands great respect. For what they say and what they do is prompted by accurate knowledge and a passionate desire to warn humanity about the danger looming over it. In light of their arguments and the strictly scientific data which they possess, there seems to be no room left for politicking. And no serious politician has the right to disregard their conclusions.” (Mikhail Gorbachev, about IPPNW, in his political autobiography, Perestroika, 1987)

International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW)
When Ronald Reagan was asked about the effects of nuclear war for a February 12, 1985 interview in The New York Times, he said:“A great many reputable scientists are telling us that such a war could just end up in no victory for anyone because we would wipe out the earth as we know it. And if you think back to ... natural calamities - back in the last century, in the 1800’s, ... volcanoes - we saw the weather so changed that there was snow in July in many temperate countries. And they called it the year in which there was no summer. Now if one volcano can do that, what are we talking about with the whole nuclear exchange, the nuclear winter that scientists have been talking about? It’s possible ...”

(And at the 1986 IPPNW World Congress in Cologne – New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange credited New Zealand doctors through IPPNW with having played a significant role in the development of New Zealand’s nuclear free status: “You have made medical reality a part of political reality.”)


The moral of the story: the data about the threat from nuclear weapons and nuclear radiation -- when made known -- can put an end to politics as usual.


Related posts

It can all happen very fast . . . . No one really knows ahead of time what will happen . . . . That's why it's so important for people to get together and talk.

(See The Lesson of Reykjavik: TALK About Nuclear Disarmament (You Never Know) )








Nuclear radiation is invisible. It needs to be measured and counted to be recognized, and it requires careful scientific method to be understood. Measuring and counting and science are difficult. But . . .

(See GLOBAL HIBAKUSHA: Doing the work to render the invisible visible)








The logic is simple: nuclear power and nuclear weapons result in irreparable harm to human health. Decades of evidence is in. There's no more disagreement. Now it's just a political problem. (And everyone knows: Bill Gates is nothing if not logical.)

(See NO NUKES PHILANTHROPY: How to spend $1 billion wisely)

Sunday, November 29, 2015

NO NUKES PHILANTHROPY: How to spend $1 billion wisely

Bill Gates weighing the facts . . . .
I read that Bill Gates is promising $1 billion to help jump start alternative energy technologies, and the promise is timed to give a boost to the Paris Climate Conference. (See "Bill Gates Expected to Create Billion-Dollar Fund for Clean Energy" by Coral Davenport in The New York Times, November 27, 2015.)

The announcement talks about wind and solar.

But if you look at where Bill Gates stands on nuclear, you will find that he is the chairman of a company that purports to find "good" forms of nuclear energy (TerraPower).

The single most powerful thing Bill Gates could do today is to say loud and clear that those investments in alternative energy solutions will only go to places that agree NOT to pursue nuclear -- nuclear power as well as nuclear weapons.

That could be especially important for countries -- such as India -- that are ramping up for big nuclear power expansions. And for the few remaining countries -- and the number is shrinking every day -- that have not yet signed on to the commitment for a nuclear weapons ban.

The logic is simple: nuclear power and nuclear weapons result in irreparable harm to human health. Decades of evidence is in. There's no more disagreement. Now it's just a political problem. (See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?" )

And everyone knows: Bill Gates is nothing if not logical.


Related links

According to The New York Times ("Bill Gates Takes On Climate Change With Nudges and a Powerful Rolodex"), the Gates initiative is the linchpin in bringing India into an agreement: "In particular, Mr. Gates’s renown in India as a tech founder and philanthropist gave the French and American governments a key emissary to get the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on board with their climate goals."


Related posts

The enormous irony is that now one country -- India -- is responding to its past subjugation by the Western imperial program with this hugely self-damaging program, and another country that has struggled with its relationship to the Western imperial program -- Japan -- is doing everything it can to aid and abet.

(See INDIA: Lured into playing the "Great Power" Nuclear Game)

In the spirit of Bill Gates, I would like to ask: what would it look like if we REALLY upgraded our world?  What would it mean if all the great minds of the tech world tackled a life-and-death problem.

(See Upgrade Your World. Abolish Nuclear Weapons. )





Hibakusha is a word that has traditionally been used to refer to people affected by the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagaski.  It is now being broadened to recognize the many additional victims of acute affects of nuclear radiation (including fallout from tests and radioactivity from mining and processing). In fact, we are all subject to the impact and threat of nuclear radiation spread indiscriminately by nations and corporations.

(See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?")






2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 2015). Let's do something about it: make a nuclear ban a reality.

(See TIME FOR A NUCLEAR BAN? On the 70th Anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki )

Saturday, November 28, 2015

GLOBAL HIBAKUSHA: Doing the work to render the invisible visible


One way to make radiation visible:>
The drawings of Misato Yugi
Share by Hiroaki Koide at
World Nuclear Victims Forum
A substantial number of the presentations at the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima required intense concentration on numbers. And I realized that's an inherent part of the struggle of the global hibakusha. (See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?" )

Nuclear radiation is invisible. It needs to be measured and counted to be recognized, and it requires careful scientific method to be understood. Measuring and counting and science are difficult. But . . .

. . . in this sphere, POWER depends on -- is a function of -- the ability to deal with nuclear radiation's invisibility through these means.

This was brought home to me in discussion during the lunch breaks with one of the other attendees. We were both kind of fretting over how the scientific presentations can be difficult to follow, and tiring. Couldn't we just be activists without having to sit through all these scientific presentations? we wondered.

But as we discussed it more, we realized that doing the science part -- and doing it well -- is one of the keys to success as activists, when it comes to dealing with nuclear radiation.

That's why it was so great that there were so many expert presentations at the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima. (See list of presentations in English | in Japanese.)

I think there are four corollaries to this point:


"exposure to 1 mSv per year means that in one year, on average one ray of
radiation passes through the nuclei of every cell in the body [about 60 trillion cells]."
(From 10 Lessons from Fukushima, Fukushima Booklet Pulbication Committee)


(a) Measurement - Simply stated, everyone who aspires to be an activist in this area will need to resign themselves to doing at least some of their communications in numbers -- including units related to radiation exposure (e.g. "sieverts"), comparisons with control groups, time series, and statistical measures.

Which is closely connected to the issue of . . .


World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima:
"Traces of Tunafishing Boat Sailings in Pacific Ocean
(March 1 - May 27, 1954)"
"From 1 March to 14 May, 1954, [6] hydrogen bomb experiments were performed
in the Marshall island area . . . . there were about 500 tuna ships there and
exposed by the radioactive fallout from these explosions. In each ship, about 
20 fishermen were on board, thereofre about 10,000 people were exposed."Masaharu Hoshi (Professor Emeritus at Hiroshima University)


(b) Visualization - There is a need to give prominence to high-quality visualization of data related to nuclear radiation and its effects, particularly with respect to distribution in time and space.

(I am reminded of the principles advanced by Edward Tufte, e.g. in Visual Display of Quantitative Data.)


World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima:
"Time trend of Atomic Bomb-related Cancers"
"1st Leukemia Phase" - peaks within the first ten years, then trail off.
"Solid Cancers Phase" begins to plateau only after about 40 years.
"2nd Leukemia Phase" grows steadily, but only beginning after year 10.
Masao Tomonaga (Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hospital Director Emeritus)


(c) Time lag - The ultimate challenge for advocacy is that an enormous amount of time tends to transpire while data is acquired and analyzed -- especially data related to effects of nuclear radiation in humans. (And while time passes, more people are harmed by nuclear radiation.)

(This is why, I think, the "precautionary principle" has such relevance to the problem of nuclear radiation.)


A little atomic power with your morning coffee?
(Reddy Kilowatt flacks for the nuclear energy industry.)


(d) Messaging - The difficulty posed by the invisibility of nuclear radiation means that extreme skill must be used to come up with messaging that is successful -- providing "instant comprehension" while still remaining faithful to the underlying complexity of the physical phenomena.

(Up until now, the nuclear industry has prevailed in this area. It's time to change that.)


It's time for us to knuckle down and do the hard work to make the danger posed by nuclear radiation -- and the situation of global hibakusha -- visible.


#GlobalHibakusha say: "Make the harm from #nuclear 100% visible!"
(Please retweet this message!)


Related posts

Hibakusha is a word that has traditionally been used to refer to people affected by the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagaski.  It is now being broadened to recognize the many additional victims of acute affects of nuclear radiation (including fallout from tests and radioactivity from mining and processing). In fact, we are all subject to the impact and threat of nuclear radiation spread indiscriminately by nations and corporations.

(See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?")






Gorbachev: "In light of their arguments and the strictly scientific data which they possess, there seems to be no room left for politicking. And no serious politician has the right to disregard their conclusions.”

(See When the facts all point to one conclusion: "No More Nukes" )







The tremendous contribution of the "Op-Chart" is the way it reminds us that there are actual people -- many, many people -- behind the statistics in the news we read each day about Afghanistan, and that the events are happening in a real, physical place that you can relate to via a map, and that the events that are occurring on our authority are cumulative -- they add up to a large number of people. Beyond that, however, there is a problem with the "Op-Chart": it doesn't actually do a very good job helping us detect the patterns in the assembled information.

(See Tufte, Faces, and Afghanistan Casualties )


At the end of the first day of the 2012 CODEPINK drone conference, I came to a realization: the fundamental problem that we had all gathered to address is that drones render killing 100% invisible. And as long as the killing is invisible, we lose the most powerful tool we have for fighting the killing: the disgust and outrage of the general public.

(See Make Drone Killing 100% VISIBLE!)

Friday, November 27, 2015

GLOBAL HIBAKUSHA: The Result of the "People Who Don't Matter" Mindset


"Della Rae Morrison, chair of the Western Australian Nuclear Free Alliance
and an Aboriginal woman from the Bibbulmum Nation in Western Australia,
has been active in the fight against nuclear power and uranium mining since
the threat of uranium mining occurred in her country." (Peace Boat image)


The outstanding aspect of the "global hibakusha" phenomenon that I learned about at the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima was that in situation after situation, great harm is done because someone has the attitude that "these people don't matter." (See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?" )

Spread radioactivity throughout the Navajo lands of the US Southwest? Could it because someone said, "Don't worry, those people don't matter . . . " ?

Radioactive fallout in the lands of the aboriginal people of Australia?  Could it because someone said, "Don't worry, those people don't matter . . . " ?

Workers sent in to clean up the Chernobyl radiation release and then getting radiation sickness?  "Don't worry, those people don't matter . . . "

Workers sent in to clean up the Fukushima radiation release and then getting leukemia?  "Don't worry . . . "

A huge increase in cancers in the Xinjiang area of China after nuclear testing?  " . . . those people don't matter . . . "

Hiroshima?  " . . . those people . . . "

Nagasaki?  " . . . don't matter . . . "

DU in Iraq? Testing in the Marshall Islands? US downwinders? Indian uranium workers?

And on and on and on . . .

It has to do with racism. It has to do with class. It has to do with colonialism and imperialism. Most of all it has to do with power.

The Declaration of the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima (Draft Elements of a Charter of World Nuclear Victims’ Rights) states:

We acknowledge that the mining and refining of uranium, nuclear testing, and the disposal of nuclear waste are being carried out based on ongoing colonization, discriminatory oppression, and infringement of indigenous peoples’ rights, including their rights to relationships with their ancestral land. These activities impose involuntary exposure to radiation and contaminate the local environment. Thus, the local populations are continually and increasingly deprived of the basic necessities for human life with ever more of them becoming nuclear victims. (Section 5)

(Read the Declaration of the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima (Draft Elements of a Charter of World Nuclear Victims’ Rights) in English | in Japanese )

That's why it's time to say, "We are ALL hibakusha" . . . and to join the global movement to stop the harm from nuclear radiation.


#GlobalHibakusha: what are we going to do about it?
(Please retweet this message!)



Related posts

Hibakusha is a word that has traditionally been used to refer to people affected by the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagaski.  It is now being broadened to recognize the many additional victims of acute affects of nuclear radiation (including fallout from tests and radioactivity from mining and processing). In fact, we are all subject to the impact and threat of nuclear radiation spread indiscriminately by nations and corporations.

(See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?")






2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 2015). Let's do something about it: make a nuclear ban a reality.

(See TIME FOR A NUCLEAR BAN? On the 70th Anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki )





 


The biggest idea coming out of the 2013 Drone Summit? We will only deal successfully with the crimes being committed using drones when we understand them as part of the much larger war against communities of color . . . .

(See Drone Gaze, Drone Injury: The War on Communities of Color )












It will take me multiple posts to spell out everything that I feel needs to be said about the Ayotzinapa 43.  People in the US need to work to change their own attitude about Mexico, and about the culpability or all of us here in the US in the wrongs that are being done down there. The Ayotzinapa 43 were persecuted for saying "the future can be different." It's time for us to take up their cry.

(See Ayotzinapa43: US People Need an Attitude Adjustment )





(May 21, 2012) As the Obama administration expresses fury at Pakistani resistance to further NATO war operations and excludes Pakistan's president from the NATO Summit, members of the wider community will gather to memorialize people killed by U.S. airstrikes and drone attacks in Pakistan as well as in the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as U.S./NATO operations in Yemen, Libya, and elsewhere. Recognizing what veterans on Sunday called "the burden of blood that has stained these medals", Trinity Church has opened its lawn to expressions of grief and remembrance by the entire community.

(See #NATOvictims )






How might an uprising against inequality and dismantling the military-industrial complex dovetail?

(See WHERE'S MINE? Inequality in the US and the Military-Industrial Complex )

Thursday, November 26, 2015

NUCLEAR RADIATION VICTIMS: 10 Dimensions of the #GlobalHibakusha Phenomenon

World Nuclear Victims Forum in process. In background, poster exhibit from
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) show
examples of hibakusha from 50 locations worldwide.


My first post on returning from the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima was dug into the question, "What does it mean to say, "We are ALL hibakusha?"

Here are 10 of the post prominent examples about which I learned at the conference. (I will write more about each of these points in detail, and add links here as I expand the discussion. I welcome comments!)

(1) Uranium mining legacy in New Mexico. (Start by learning about the spill of nuclear waste at Church Rock.)

(2) Japan is in the midst of a nuclear power disaster -- Fukushima -- and yet is doing everything it can to export nuclear power plants to India. (See INDIA: Lured into playing the "Great Power" Nuclear Game)

(3) The victims of atomic testing that nobody talks about: Western China. (Read about the results of the Lop Nur testing.)

(4) Voices from Chernobyl. We have a powerful resource in Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich's Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster. (See IN ORDER TO HAVE A FUTURE: We MUST Study Chernobyl . . .)

(5) Germany's commitment to eliminate nuclear power by 2022 is a real line in the sand. (See GERMANY TURNS OFF NUCLEAR: The long road to freedom . . . . )

(6) The Marshall Islands is on the road to getting justice from bomb testing nations. (See MARSHALL ISLANDS HIBAKUSHA: Can social media trump empire and entertainment?)

(7) A campaign to "follow the money" in order to stop nuclear weaponry has been launched. (See dontbankonthebomb.com.)

(8) In Japan, in light of the Fukushima disaster, lawsuits against corporate executives and power companies are making progress. (See The New York Times, "3 Former Executives to Be Prosecuted in Fukushima Nuclear Disaster")

(9) Enormous pressure is building in Scotland to get nuclear weapons out of the UK. (The latest in many developments has been a Scottish Labour motion on scrapping Trident.)

(10) The "nonproliferation treaty" (NPT) was supposed to get rid of the nuclear threat -- but in light of its failure a ban treaty is taking its place. (See Want #NoNukes in 2016? TAKE ACTION!)

More detail to follow!


A global threat demands global response: #NOnukes #GlobalHibakusha
(Please retweet this message!)



Related posts

One way in which the patterns of the past are being turned on their head is through social media. Even if you are "just a 'dot' in the middle of the ocean," you can still have a global voice.

(See MARSHALL ISLANDS HIBAKUSHA: Can social media trump empire and entertainment?)











The enormous irony is that now one country -- India -- is responding to its past subjugation by the Western imperial program with this hugely self-damaging program, and another country that has struggled with its relationship to the Western imperial program -- Japan -- is doing everything it can to aid and abet.

(See INDIA: Lured into playing the "Great Power" Nuclear Game)


Three factors have played a big part in Germany's decision to go 100% "zero nuclear" by 2022 has relied on : the threat posed by the big powers, soul-searching within a very "bourgeoise" society, and organizing.

(See GERMANY TURNS OFF NUCLEAR: The long road to freedom . . . . )











Voices from Chernobyl is a rock upon which to build a global effort to tell the truth about Chernobyl and the hibakusha of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.
(See IN ORDER TO HAVE A FUTURE: We MUST Study Chernobyl . . .)













A movement is underway WORLDWIDE to ban nuclear weapons. The fact that you are reading this online, and can use social media to take action and encourage others to do so, too, points to the tool we can use to make the ban a reality.

(See Want #NoNukes in 2016? TAKE ACTION!)






Hibakusha is a word that has traditionally been used to refer to people affected by the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagaski.  It is now being broadened to recognize the many additional victims of acute affects of nuclear radiation (including fallout from tests and radioactivity from mining and processing). In fact, we are all subject to the impact and threat of nuclear radiation spread indiscriminately by nations and corporations.

(See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?")






Here are additional posts from my time at the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima in November, 2015, plus my thoughts as the event approached, and a list of my blog posts on eliminating nuclear weapons and related topics.

(See Nov 21-23, 2015 in Hiroshima: World Nuclear Victims Forum -- I'll Be There )

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?"


Participants in the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima


I have just returned from the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima.

The big lesson from this gathering is: "We are ALL hibakusha!" What does this mean?

Hibakusha is a word that has traditionally been used to refer to people affected by the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagaski.  It is now being broadened to recognize the many additional victims of acute affects of nuclear radiation (including fallout from tests and radioactivity from mining and processing). In fact, we are all subject to the impact and threat of nuclear radiation spread indiscriminately by nations and corporations.

So . . . 

(1) It's a massive threat - take it seriously.  The #1 lesson for me of this conference is the global nature of the threat posed by nuclear radiation, and the state power that lies behind it. We learned about people in places as diverse as Central Europe, Western China, India, Southern Australia, the islands of the Pacific, Japan, the U.S. Southwest, and Iraq being harmed by the release of nuclear radiation.

(2) Don't be distracted. I was reminded once again that one reason this threat persists is that it requires concentration to understand the scientific underpinnings of it. That requires hard work. It is sooooo much easier to just turn on the TV and watch a soccer match. Prevailing against this threat will require us to stand against an "entertainment culture" that tries to convince people, "Just don't worry about it!"

(3) Spread the word. We have a tool that we can use: social media. Spread the word.

More broadly, from this gathering I came to understand the following six aspects of the situation we face with respect to the threat from nuclear radiation:

* Relationship to "technology" - Over and over, we see it asserted that "We have the technology to use nuclear radiation safely." People fail to admit the limits of "technology." (See The Problem With Technology: Nuclear Radiation Injury and the Need to Admit Our Limitations)

* Treating people like they don't matter - Over and over, we see groups of people subjected to nuclear radiation. They are treated like they don't matter. (See GLOBAL HIBAKUSHA: The Result of the "People Who Don't Matter" Mindset )

* Invisibility - Advocacy in this area faces a special difficulty: because nuclear radiation can't be seen, extra work is required to make it understandable and build support for stopping it. (See GLOBAL HIBAKUSHA: Doing the work to render the invisible visible)

* Human nexus - We must take special care to address this problem from the standpoint of the lives harmed by it. (See The Alpha and Omega of Nuclear Radiation Injury: the Human Nexus)

* Government failure - Consistently, we see government fail to protect people from nuclear radiation.

* Irreversibility - The release of nuclear radiation is so profound, in part, because of the practical impossibility of fully reversing it.

I will write more about each of these points in detail, and add links here as I expand the discussion. I welcome comments!

In addition, here are 10 specific takeaways -- issues and circumstances that people need to know about and share with others.


HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?"
(Please retweet this message!)


Related posts

Here are additional posts from my time at the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima in November, 2015, plus my thoughts as the event approached, and a list of my blog posts on eliminating nuclear weapons and related topics.

(See Nov 21-23, 2015 in Hiroshima: World Nuclear Victims Forum -- I'll Be There )



2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9, 2015). Let's do something about it: make a nuclear ban a reality.

(See TIME FOR A NUCLEAR BAN? On the 70th Anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki )








There are three centers of power that will impact nuclear disarmament: the President, the Congress, and the people. One of them will have to make nuclear disarmament happen.

(See Countdown to U.S. Nuclear Disarmament (With or Without the Politicians) )

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Radioactive Waste: "What are you gonna do with it?"

We all loved the six-week course on auto mechanics taught by our high school shop teacher, Mr. Sutter.

I remember something about distribution caps and an oscilloscope that you could hook up to it, though I have to admit that is not a procedure I could reproduce now, 40 years later. I do remember the correct way to tighten the lug nuts when changing a tire, however . . .

And I do have a crystal clear memory of our session on changing oil.  Mr. Sutter carefully showed us how to locate the oil pan, how to position a receptacle under the outlet, and how to remove the bolt to release the stream of dirty oil.

But the part that was most memorable was when Mr. Sutter said, "Now you know how to change the oil yourself.  But I recommend you just go to a gas station and let them do it. Sure, it's not hard to get the old oil out. But once you get all those quarts of dirty oil . . . what are you gonna do with it?"

I thought of Mr. Sutter yesterday as I sat in Hiroshima at the World Nuclear Victims Forum listening to a dairy-farmer-from-Fukushima-turned-journalist-and-activist, Kenichi Hasegawa, describing the situation after the 2011 nuclear disaster there.

In one part of his presentation, he described the work to "decontaminate" his village of Iitate. He said that after removing a thin layer of soil from just the residential areas, the workers had produced acres of garbage bags full of contaminated soil.


"An aerial photograph taken by a drone shows the vast dump
sites that contain tens of thousands of sacks of contaminated soil."
(From Daily Mail / Image: Podniesinski/REX Shutterstock)


(The image above is sourced from the Internet -- and is similar to the one shown by Mr. Hasegawa.)

It is difficult to imagine what they will do with all the waste generated by "cleaning up" the much larger agricultural areas. (And a much larger area of unfarmed hills will be left contaminated.)

And this does not even begin to consider just how "cleaned up" those areas are after removing a thin layer of soil.

People act as if cleaning up after radiation releases is just a detail, just "a problem to be managed."

But I think Mr. Sutter was right: "What are you gonna do with it?"


Update March 1, 2016: Madhusree Mukerjee reports in Scientific American: "TEPCO collects the contaminated water and stores it all in massive tanks at the rate of up to 400 metric tons a day. . . . Disputes over its final resting place remain unresolved. The same goes for the millions of bags of contaminated topsoil and other solid waste from the disaster, as well as the uranium fuel itself." (See "Spill Waste: The cleanup effort could take decades; meanwhile the amount of radioactive material the plant leaks grows")


Related Posts


Voices from Chernobyl is a rock upon which to build a global effort to tell the truth about Chernobyl and the hibakusha of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia.
(See IN ORDER TO HAVE A FUTURE: We MUST Study Chernobyl . . .)














Hibakusha is a word that has traditionally been used to refer to people affected by the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagaski.  It is now being broadened to recognize the many additional victims of acute affects of nuclear radiation (including fallout from tests and radioactivity from mining and processing). In fact, we are all subject to the impact and threat of nuclear radiation spread indiscriminately by nations and corporations.

(See HIROSHIMA: What does it mean to say, "We are ALL 'hibakusha'?")

Friday, November 20, 2015

"May the odds be ever in your favor!" ("Live in fear . . . . ")

I'm here in Hiroshima for the World Nuclear Victims Forum.

In the weeks leading up to this trip, one of the things I was doing was reading and writing about the Hunger Games trilogy.

Anyone who has read The Hunger Games recognizes the phrase, "May the odds be ever in your favor!" It refers to the lousy odds that young people face in that dystopian story: the odds that they will avoid being selected in the "reaping" to be one of the combatants in the games, and the odds that they will be the last of the 24 combatants to survive.

"May the odds be ever in your favor!" is the slogan of a power structure that has done everything it can to make the odds stink.

"May the odds be ever in your favor!" really translates as "Live in fear . . . . "

I thought of this expression yesterday as I walked back from the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum.

I was thinking about what I had seen, and particularly about the victims of radiation.

There is a section of the museum that tries to explain what radiation is, what it does, and what it means for people exposed to it. It became clear to me that it is much more difficult to explain than the effects of the immediate heat and blast of an atomic explosion.

Later I looked through a book from the museum, and on a page about the girl Sadako who died of leukemia, I saw something that helped me understand.

Sadako's diary of her weekly blood test results.


It is a record kept secretly by Sadako of the results of her weekly blood tests.

For each week from March through July, you can see the month and day, followed by the count for "white," "red," and "blood." If you follow closely, as I did, you see the counts rise and fall. You wonder, "What did Sadako think as she read each new set of numbers? Is this week's result good? Or bad?"

Sadako died on October 25.

How many Sadakos are there?

Perhaps the most important point about radiation sickness is not any one discrete symptom -- which can include anemia ... nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and abdominal pain ... dizziness, headache, or decreased level of consciousness ... cancer ... death (Wikipedia) -- but the fact that it's invisible and you never know what is going to develop after exposure.

All anyone can say is, "May the odds be ever in your favor!"

"Live in fear . . . . "


Related posts

We must recognize the harm that nuclear radiation does to people, and to lift up the newly-proposed "Charter of World Nuclear Victims' Rights."

(See The Alpha and Omega of Nuclear Radiation Injury: the Human Nexus)






There is a monument to mothers and children killed by the atomic bomb in Nagasaki. I felt that if there was just one image to sum up my visit here, it would be this one.

(See Nagasaki: Impressions )









"To see the atom bomb museum," I said. And again I wondered, what can a child in Nagasaki think when they see a person from the US who has come here to see the atom bomb museum?

(See Encounter in Nagasaki )









Two themes -- hunting vs. healing and the socio-economic underpinnings of war culture -- are just a few of the many that have leapt out at me as I've ready Book I of The Hunger Games.

(See Hunger Games: Hunting vs. Healing)








I'm preparing to attend the World Nuclear Victims Forum in Hiroshima in November. Here are my thoughts as the event approaches, plus a list of my blog posts on this topic.

(See Nov 21-23, 2015 in Hiroshima: World Nuclear Victims Forum -- I'll Be There )




The recurring theme of the The Hurt Locker is "We're done here." The tension of each encounter with a bomb is followed by the moment when the hero successfully defuses the bomb, and then announces "We're done here." The deeper theme of the movie is psychological: the solder is addicted to the excitement. He is unable to go on with a normal life. He keeps going back, again and again, to Iraq, to defuse more bombs. (HE is NEVER "done".)

(See DU: Will we ever be able to say "We're done here" ? )