By: Kyle K. Mann
It is a deeply ironic fact that the Japanese people accepted nuclear power after having been the targets of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Think about it a moment: they got nuked, then used the same technology that burned them to power their homes and workplaces.
Writer James W. Douglas calls nuclear war “the unspeakable” and of course, he is right. The descriptions that survivors of the two A-bombed cities have handed us are beyond my ability to label simply as ghastly or hellish. So the sell job foisted on the public in Japan to build nuclear plants must have been extremely intense and effective, especially considering the potential that the island nation has for earthquakes, volcanoes and of course tsunami.
Post 3-11, we clearly see that those pooh-poohing the possibility of catastrophic disaster were at best deluded fools, and at worst evil money grubbers who should be incarcerated with minimum comfort for decades to come. Those Japanese fighting the plants, in contrast, should be honored every way possible, including financially. But the irony of the Fukushima nuclear disaster is much much worse than that.
In a best case scenario, Japan permanently closes all their nuke plants for good. But, nukes are forever. Since there is no place to store the highly radioactive nuclear waste, we have what are misleadingly called “spent fuel pools” at every nuclear plant. If there is an accident storing these wastes, or heaven forfend, a terrorist (or false flag) attack, there will be hell to pay. The criminal idiots at Fukushima stored the wastes up in the air! This is a blunder of truly unbelievable proportions.
The knowledgable nuclear observer and commentator Helen Caldicott has said that even a moderate earthquake in the Fukushima area is likely to knock over one of these elevated pools, causing a cloud of radiation so vast as to render the northern hemisphere of our planet uninhabitable. How’s that for an horrendous disaster courtesy of “clean, safe” nuclear power?
The density of some people’s skulls on this topic is such that screaming through 100 Marshal amplifiers linked together could not penetrate. Sadly, people usually don’t learn, and even Fukushima isn’t enough to make the obvious lesson clear: “No nukes is good nukes.”
I had a big debate with a nuclear engineer on this topic some years ago. I’ll say this about him; he knew when to admit defeat. It was when I said, “There is no safe way to dispose of the wastes.” He was whipped, and he knew it. I respected him for that.
Not only is radioactivity toxic to all life, it is often toxic for time spans longer than humans have had “civilization.” Even if we can store the stuff for a generation or two, how do we know what’s coming after? 100 years, 1000 years, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
And the tragedy of the effects of radiation on children, or unborn, are indescribable. How dare they irradiate the innocent whose defenses are incapable of withstanding embedded carcinogenic, mutagenic particles of, say, plutonium? If you can’t get mad about that, you can’t get mad. I’d even have to question your humanity.
As Americans, we share a particular karmic burden for this mess. The collapse and meltdown of General Electric reactors, fine American corporate products, is on us. We enable these evil outfits by buying their products. That’s right, buddy, I’m talking to You… And me too. I deeply regret every single GE lightbulb I ever purchased.
I wonder why it is so difficult to learn this vital lesson. After all, the Germans got smart right after Fukushima and went for renewable energy in a big way. Their use of solar and wind power has skyrocketed. More bitter irony, because, how ironic is it that the people we helped defeat in WW2 are now so achingly smarter than we.
I live not all that far from Diablo Canyon, California’s last operational nuclear plant. When it was built, over three decades ago, scientists and geologists were not aware of earthquake faults nearby the site, one a mere few hundred yards away. I want to scream, “Are you psycho idiots kidding me?” And then, even louder “Close it now, damnit, NOW!”
Meanwhile at Fukushima, the radioactive water pours into the sea every day. My advice, eat nothing from the Pacific ever again. Bio-accumulation is gonna getcha. This is no idle comment, my fellow Americans. Get a freaking clue.
And then there is the airborne contamination. We saw at Chernobyl how extensive that was. How much is here? We don’t know, because the monitors have been shut off. Yep. Oh and the “acceptable” amount in our food had limits raised by the Obama Administration, though there is no safe minimum. Obama took a lot of donations from the nuclear industry, by the way. There is a whole lotta cash riding on this issue.
So why aren’t the American people up in arms over these outrages, not to mention the 99 aging, increasingly dangerous nuke plants still running in the good ole USA? It’s simple: the news is gamed. But don’t take my word for it, read here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150311124202.htm
Which brings us to the biggest irony of all, in my view. The cosmic justice! You see, we didn’t have to nuke Japan. We did so to scare the Russians, to make them realize we were crazy enough to use nuclear weapons. In many ways, seventy years later, we are still playing the same evil game with them.
And as for the monstrous irony… we nuked Japan, and now, particle by particle, drop by drop, as the prevailing air and water currents flow from them to us, they are nuking us back.
Fukushima R Us.
By Kyle K. Mann
Topanga
3/15/15
