In a report from Al Jazeera, we're learning that things in Japan are far more grave than originally reported. It is believed that "the Fukushima nuclear plant likely has more exposed reactor cores" than what we've been told.
Not only has the evacuation zone increased in size and more hotspots have been found around the country, but the negative impacts from this nuclear holocaust are being felt far and wide! It is suspected that the leaking radiation is causing adverse reactions as far away as the United States.
It is understandable why a good deal of the Japanese people have grown suspicious of their own government over the handling of this national emergency. Not unlike the US government's handling of the BP Oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the Japanese government has tried to undersell the catastrophe every step of the way.
The genuine scope of the situation dribbles out in begrudged press releases. Each minimization of data is later followed with an increase in impact for health and safety. Each attempt to say, "Don't worry folks, we have everything under control" is followed by a sheepish admission that the word "control" is not to be taken literally.
Of course, far too many Americans would like to believe that, if this magnitude of a disaster happened on our shores, our government and mainstream media would be far more forthcoming than our Japanese counterparts. (In light of the aforementioned oil spill disaster, this simply proves that Americans, by and large, suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder!)
If you think the US government and media have our backs, did you know that two nuclear power plants in Nebraska are partially submerged by flood waters right now?
If it keeps raining and flooding in the Midwest, these people may have a heap of misery on their hands too!
Not only has the evacuation zone increased in size and more hotspots have been found around the country, but the negative impacts from this nuclear holocaust are being felt far and wide! It is suspected that the leaking radiation is causing adverse reactions as far away as the United States.
In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.You see, this is the problem with nuclear accidents. While there is no question that the people in the nearest vicinity to a nuclear plant suffer the greatest damage, people in far flung areas that don't enjoy ANY of the supposed benefits of the energy produced become unwitting victims too. We don't have the technology to build a virtual fence around an accident to quarantine it from the rest of the world -- Our problem over here becomes your problem over there...whether you like it or not.
The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.
"There is and should be concern about younger people being exposed, and the Japanese government will be giving out radiation monitors to children," Dr MV Ramana, a physicist with the Programme on Science and Global Security at Princeton University who specialises in issues of nuclear safety, told Al Jazeera.
Dr Ramana explained that he believes the primary radiation threat continues to be mostly for residents living within 50km of the plant, but added: "There are going to be areas outside of the Japanese government's 20km mandatory evacuation zone where radiation is higher. So that could mean evacuation zones in those areas as well..."
It is understandable why a good deal of the Japanese people have grown suspicious of their own government over the handling of this national emergency. Not unlike the US government's handling of the BP Oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the Japanese government has tried to undersell the catastrophe every step of the way.
The genuine scope of the situation dribbles out in begrudged press releases. Each minimization of data is later followed with an increase in impact for health and safety. Each attempt to say, "Don't worry folks, we have everything under control" is followed by a sheepish admission that the word "control" is not to be taken literally.
Of course, far too many Americans would like to believe that, if this magnitude of a disaster happened on our shores, our government and mainstream media would be far more forthcoming than our Japanese counterparts. (In light of the aforementioned oil spill disaster, this simply proves that Americans, by and large, suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder!)
If you think the US government and media have our backs, did you know that two nuclear power plants in Nebraska are partially submerged by flood waters right now?
The Ft. Calhoun plant — which stores its fuel rods at ground level according to Tom Burnett — is already partly submerged.So, before you go shaking your head about the awful plight of all those people who live around the Fukushima plant, you might want to say a little prayer -- if that's your thing -- for all the folks who live in the vicinity of Blair, Nebraska...as well as the millions of people who live downriver in places like Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans and all points in between.
“Ft. Calhoun is the designated spent fuel storage facility for the entire state of Nebraska…and maybe for more than one state. Calhoun stores its spent fuel in ground-level pools which are underwater anyway – but they are open at the top. When the Missouri river pours in there, it’s going to make Fukushima look like an x-ray...”
If it keeps raining and flooding in the Midwest, these people may have a heap of misery on their hands too!
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