3/11 One Year After the Worst Nuclear Accident In History

3/11 One Year After the Worst Nuclear Accident In History

We’ve learned some important things since a 9.0 earthquake, and subsequent tsunami, racked 14 nuclear power plants in Japan. We’ve learned some important things, that is, if you believe the spin doctors.  

1) Zen Buddhists have planted planted hundreds of thousands of sunflowers to "absorb" the radiation. 

Absorb it? If you wipe up a spill, with a paper towel, you still have to dispose of the paper towel. And, in this case, the toxic towels (sunflowers) will last indefinitely - where you gonna put ’em? 

So much for enlightenment. 

2) A Japanese official publicly stated that the key to beating radiation poisoning is to smile. 

No, REALLY! The official chuckled and told the Japanese people they would come to no harm if only they would . . . well . . . just smile. Frankly the sunflowers make more sense. 

So much for transparency in politics. 

3) The 1,331 deaths, which are clearly and admittedly a result of TEPCO/GE’s Fukushima radioactive facility, were caused by stress (and not by radiation) and are all among Japan’s elderly.

You can’t trust the elderly! Hell they’ll drop dead at the slightest hint of stress. 

So much for medical reporting. 

4) The disaster in Japan is the worst nuclear "incident" SINCE Chernobyl and is every bit of one tenth the severity of the incident in Ukraine 25 years ago.

Chernobyl involved the partial meltdown of one reactor. Official estimates of deaths, from the Chernobyl accident, range from 31 (The "official" Russian statistic) to 1.5 MILLION people from cancer. The accident at Fukushima involved THREE full reactor core meltdowns and 10,000 metric tons of spent, only partially used, very radioactive reactor cores. Fukushima, by some (unofficial but knowledgeable) estimates, is equal to Chernobyl times fifty. Fukushima is NOT the worst radiation accident SINCE Chernobyl . . . it is the worst nuclear accident EVER. 

So much for science. 

5) "Safe" levels of radiation, well, they change with the times. 

Japanese officials have constantly adjusted "acceptable" levels of radiation upwards. The disaster at Fukushima is worsening by the day. It is NOT under control. Japan is, for all intents and purposes, extinct. 

So much for risk assessment. 

You can’t make this stuff up.

Believe our "leaders," "experts," and what the media feeds us? I don’t think so. 

According to Wikipedia there have been in excess of 20 meltdowns in nuclear reactor cores spewing radiation into air, land, ground water aquifers and oceans. "Natural" background radiation cannot come close to the deadly numbers that we’re seeing today. An early report showed that the jet stream had carried radiation across North America and well into Europe dropping radioactivity all along its path. 

Ironically, prior to Fukushima, there was a high visibility PR movement to paint nuclear power green. Obama is still including these radiation death facilities in his speeches as "alternative energy" and has just authorized tax payer dollars to jump start the "nuclear renaissance" with two new plants near Atlanta, Georgia. 

There is no end to REAL alternatives: solar, wind, geothermal, and wave power, in addition to brilliant new and old energy conservation techniques and materials including insulation, solar orientation, nanotubes, etc. 

Are we going to let our governments and corporations build more nuclear time bombs or demand that they shut them down?

What are we waiting for?  

Really. What are we waiting for?