Documentary on anti-nuclear activism Nov. 21 in Falmouth via the Wicked Local Falmouth

Posted on 2014/11/18 by

Cinema Politica Cape Cod will present “Radioactivists,” a documentary on anti-nuclear activism in Japan, at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21 in the Falmouth Public Library’s Hermann Meeting Room.
Following the screening, Karen Valle of the Cape Cod Bay Watch will give a presentation on the similarities between Fukushima and the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth. Members of the Cape Downwinders, a local group dedicated to raising awareness about dangers posed by Pilgrim to Cape Cod residents, will discuss their work and answer questions from the audience.

[…]
The screening takes place on the heels on an announcement that Japan will put two nuclear power plants back on line for the first time since the Fukushima Dai’ichi meltdown. Valle, campaign manager for Cape Cod Bay Watch, will give a presentation following the film about current and potential environmental damage from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant. Diane Turco of Harwich and Janet Azarovitz of Falmouth will discuss the actions the Cape Downwinders have taken in order to raise awareness about the lack of an evacuation plan for Cape Cod residents in the event of a disaster in Plymouth.
In October, Turco and three other Cape Cod grandmothers were given a 30-day suspended sentence in Plymouth District Court for attempting to plant flowers on Pilgrim property during a Mother’s Day protest.

Read more.

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Documentary on anti-nuclear activism Nov. 21 in Falmouth via the Wicked Local Falmouth

Environment: South Dakota Native Americans describe House vote on Keystone XL pipeline as an ‘act of war’ via Summit County Citizens Voice

Posted on 2014/11/18 by

By Summit Voice
FRISCO — Conservation groups and climate activists aren’t the only ones hopping mad about the Congressional rush to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Native Americans in South Dakota say they consider last week’s House vote to approve the pipeline “an act of war.”
The proposed project, aimed at pumping tar sands crude oil from Canada to U.S. refineries, would completely cross South Dakota. Environmentalists oppose the pipeline because it represents continued reliance on fossil fuels. Most, if not all, of the oil would be exported to other countries, so the argument that it would somehow lower fuel prices rings hollow and false.
Of course the U.S. government has hardly ever taken Native American concerns seriously, so it would be a surprise if that happened now, but Rosebud Sioux (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) Tribal President Scott said his nation has yet to be properly consulted on the project, which would cross through tribal land. Concerns brought to the Department of Interior and to the Department of State have yet to be addressed, he said in a statement.
“The House has now signed our death warrants and the death warrants of our children and grandchildren,” Scott said. “We are outraged at the lack of intergovernmental cooperation. We are a sovereign nation and we are not being treated as such. We will close our reservation borders to Keystone XL. Authorizing Keystone XL is an act of war against our people,” he said.
In February of this year, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and other members of the Great Sioux Nation adopted tribal resolutions opposing the Keystone XL project.
“The Lakota people have always been stewards of this land,” Scott said. “We feel it is imperative that we provide safe and responsible alternative energy resources not only to tribal members but to non-tribal members as well. We need to stop focusing and investing in risky fossil fuel projects like TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. We need to start remembering that the earth is our mother and stop polluting her and start taking steps to preserve the land, water, and our grandchildren’s future.”

Read more.

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Environment: South Dakota Native Americans describe House vote on Keystone XL pipeline as an ‘act of war’ via Summit County Citizens Voice

伊方原発:配管から廃液漏れ via 毎日新聞

Posted on 2014/11/18 by yukimiyamotodepaul

１８日午後０時４０分ごろ、四国電力伊方原発２号機（愛媛県伊方町）で、放射線管理区域の原子炉補助建屋内にある配管から、微量の放射性物質を含む水が漏れているのが見つかった。四電によると、外部への漏えいや作業員の被ばくはない。

原子炉冷却水や作業着の洗濯排水などが混じった低レベル放射性廃液が、ステンレス製の配管（直径３４ミリ）から漏れ出し、乾燥した状態だった。放射性物質のコバルト６０が８５００ベクレル検出されたが、国への報告基準の約５００分の１の量だという。

続きは伊方原発:配管から廃液漏れ

関連記事：伊方原発で水漏れ＝微量の放射能含む－四国電 via 時事ドットコム

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , | Comments Off on 伊方原発:配管から廃液漏れ via 毎日新聞

第一原発地下トンネル　止水工事は失敗か （福島県）via 日テレ

Posted on 2014/11/18 by yukimiyamotodepaul

第一原発の海側の地下トンネルに流れ込む汚染水をせき止める工事について、東京電力は、工事に失敗した可能性があることを明らかにした。

第一原発２号機の海側にあるトレンチと呼ばれる地下トンネルには、建屋から高濃度の汚染水が流れ込み、５，０００トンほどがトレンチ内に溜まっていて、周辺の地下水を汚染し、一部は海へ流出しているとみられている。

東京電力はこの汚染水を抜き取るため、建屋から流れ込んでいる部分にセメントの注入するなどして、汚染水をせき止める工事を行った。
その効果を確かめるため、きのう、トレンチ内の汚染水２００トンを抜き取り水位の変化を確認したところ、本来８０センチ下がるはずの水位が２０センチほどしか下がっていなかったという。

続きは第一原発地下トンネル　止水工事は失敗か （福島県）

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , | Comments Off on 第一原発地下トンネル　止水工事は失敗か （福島県）via 日テレ

Dawn of Nuclear Arms, Declassified via The New York Times

Posted on 2014/11/17 by

[…] Waves of declassified photographs and movies from the nation’s push to make Little Boy and Fat Man — the world’s first atom bombs — are exciting not only to Mr. Coster-Mullen but a generation less familiar with the nation’s atomic past.

“They hit geek culture and go viral,” said Alex Wellerstein, a historian of science at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J.

Early this year, Dr. Wellerstein posted on his blog and on Reddit, a social news site, an annotated silent movie a little more than 11 minutes long that showed scientists and soldiers preparing Fat Man and loading the weapon onto a B-29 aircraft that would soon take off for Nagasaki, Japan; the bombing instantly killed an estimated 40,000 people there.

The movie was viewed more than 100,000 times in just one day on Reddit, and received 700 comments. Among the posted questions: Did the men know what they were doing? Probably so, Dr. Wellerstein replied on his blog, “because they knew what had happened at Hiroshima.”A few years ago, the Los Alamos National Laboratory started posting historical pictures on Flickr, a photo-sharing site. The lab’s history section now has 515 images like early bombs and scientists and rapidly expanding fireballs and rising mushroom clouds. The set includes the gadget photograph from 1945 that left Mr. Coster-Mullen agog.

A recent wave of Internet photographs has featured Little Boy and Fat Man preparations; one shows a man signing the nose of the Nagasaki bomb, and another is a tail fin close-up of scrawled names and home states, including Wisconsin and New York.

Holly Reed, a photo expert at the National Archives, the source of those images, said they went public in 1997 but received much attention recently when they were widely described online as newly released.

Read more.

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

福島県知事、経産相に福島第２原発の廃炉要請 via 日本経済新聞

Posted on 2014/11/17 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　福島県の内堀雅雄知事は17日、経済産業省を訪れて宮沢洋一経産相と会談した。内堀氏は「福島第２も含めた県内原発の全基廃炉を頭に置いて（政策 を）進めてほしい」と述べ、東京電力福島第２原発の廃炉を改めて要請した。

（略）

内堀氏が宮沢経産相と会うのは12日の知事就任後初めて。東電は事故を起こした福島第１原発の廃炉をすでに決めているが、第２原発には明確な方針を示していない。

全文は 福島県知事、経産相に福島第２原発の廃炉要請

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

さようなら原発　宇都宮で２０００人パレード via 東京新聞

Posted on 2014/11/17 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　脱原発を呼び掛ける「さようなら原発！　栃木アクション１１・１６」が十六日、宇都宮市中心部で行われ、親子連れら約二千人（主催者発表）が参加した。人々は秋空の下、「原発を未来に残すな」「再稼働反対」などと声を上げながら、市街地を力強く行進した。

　住民団体による実行委員会が主催し、今年で三回目。

（略）

　「はだしのゲン」や、チェルノブイリ原発事故を題材に語ることもあるという神田[香織さん、福島県出身で講談師]は「一国の首相が『福島第一原発の汚染水はコントロールされている』とうそをつき、うその話をするはずの講談師が本当のことを言っている」と皮肉り、会場の笑いを誘った。

　いわむら[かずおさん、「１４ひきのねずみ」シリーズで知られる益子町在住の絵本作家]は、自然の尊さを訴える自身の作風に引きつけ、「１４ひきの一家も原発に反対している」と穏やかな口調で語った。

　その後、参加者たちは、仮装したり、楽器を鳴らしたりしながら、ＪＲ宇都宮駅に向かってパレード。高濃度の放射性物質を含む「指定廃棄物」の最終処分場候補地に選ばれた塩谷町からも、多数の住民が参加した。　（大野暢子）

全文はさようなら原発　宇都宮で２０００人パレード

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on さようなら原発　宇都宮で２０００人パレード via 東京新聞

映画:福島原発をルポ「無知の知」via 毎日新聞

Posted on 2014/11/17 by yukimiyamotodepaul

福島原発をルポした映画「無知の知」が東京・ポレポレ東中野などで上映中だ。石田朝也監督は「誰もいない駅や海岸線の震災の傷跡を見て衝撃を受けた」と撮影のきっかけを語る。

(略）

菅直人、細川護熙の両元首相ら政治家のほか、原子力委員会の藤家洋一元委員長や内閣府原子力安全委員会の班目（まだらめ）春樹元委員長ら原発推進派を取り上げた。

「予備知識なしにぶつかることで、本音を聞き出せると信じた」。結果、細川元首相からは都知事選出馬をにおわせる発言を引き出し、班目氏からも意外な事実を聞き出すことに成功している。

一方で避難生活を送る人々への眼差（まなざ）しは温かい。「僕が被災者全員を救うことはできないけれど、少なくとも話を聞いた人たちは救いたいと思って作った」【木村光則】

全文は映画:福島原発をルポ「無知の知」

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

2014/11/16 【福島】もう我慢はしない！立ち上がる！ 原発事故被害者集会（動画） via IWJ Independent Web Journal

Posted on 2014/11/16 by yukimiyamotodepaul

　第一原発事故によって被害を受け引き起こされることになった数々の裁判の原告・弁護士・支援者が一堂に会し、11月16日（日）13時半より福島市公会 堂で「もう我慢はしない！立ち上がる！ 原発事故被害者集会」が開催された。被害者を分断させず、事故を風化させない、被害を軽視させないと訴えた。

(略）

  • ゲストスピーチ おしどりマコ＆ケン
  • 各団体から 原発さえなければ裁判弁護団／全国一般ふくしま連帯労働組合／福島原発被害首都圏弁護団／原発被害糾弾 飯舘村民救済申立団／原発賠償京都訴訟原告団／福島原発告訴団
  • メッセージ紹介 原発賠償関西訴訟KANSAIサポーターズ／福島原発さいたま訴訟を支援する会／原発賠償ひょうご訴訟原告団
  • 弁護士から 海渡雄一氏（福島原発告訴団弁護団、飯舘村民救済弁護団）／柳原敏夫氏（ふくしま集団疎開裁判弁護団）／保田行雄氏（飯舘村民救済弁護団、福島原発告訴団弁護団）
  • 唄 きたがわてつさん
  • 集会アピール提案・採択／閉会あいさつ 佐藤和良氏（福島原発告訴団副団長

全文及びビデオは2014/11/16 【福島】もう我慢はしない！立ち上がる！ 原発事故被害者集会（動画）

 

Posted in *日本語 | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on 2014/11/16 【福島】もう我慢はしない！立ち上がる！ 原発事故被害者集会（動画） via IWJ Independent Web Journal

Study: Fukushima health risks underestimated via Al Jazeera

Posted on 2014/11/16 by yukimiyamotodepaul

[…]

Heinz Smitai, a nuclear physicist, Greenpeace campaigner and participant in the radiation monitoring mission, told foreign journalists at an October 30 press conference in Tokyo that radiation hot spots exist as far as 60 kilometres from the site of the disaster.

For instance, one street in front of a hospital in Fukushima City “is quite contaminated”, Smitai said, measuring 1.1 microsieverts of radiation per hour. Although this was one of the highest readings, Greenpeace found 70 other places in the city where the amount of radiation recorded exceeded the Ministry of Environment’s long-term target of 0.23 microsieverts per hour.

A sievert is the standard unit for measuring the risk of radiation absorbed by the body. A millisievert is equal to one-thousandth of a sievert, while a microsievert is one-millionth of a sievert. A typical CT scan can deliver from 2 to 10 millisieverts of radiation, depending on the area being scanned.

Radiation ‘hot spots’

Greenpeace also monitored contamination in Miyakoji and Kawauchi, the first two locations in the 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the Daiichi plant where the government has lifted its evacuation advisory.

Nevertheless, Greenpeace found numerous points on roads in these areas that exceeded the target of 0.23 microsieverts per hour.

“And when you leave the roads and go into the fields and surrounding forests, the radiation levels go up very strongly,” said Jan van de Putte, a radioactivity safety advisor in Greenpeace who also participated in the Fukushima monitoring mission. Most of these areas therefore have “not been decontaminated, and cannot be decontaminated because, for instance, a forest can’t be decontaminated, practically speaking”, he added.

Japan’s Ministry of Environment (MOE) disputes Greenpeace’s claim that it is underestimating radiation contamination and its risks. It points out that radiation in Fukushima has steadily diminished over time, as indicated by the most recent Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) airborne monitoring survey, conducted in December 2013. An MOE spokesperson told Al Jazeera that radiation rates “around Fukushima have significantly decreased [compared to October 2012 NRA survey] due to physical decay, weathering, and decontamination efforts”.

Critics, however, charge that these results were found by averaging the radiation measurements, meaning that individual “hot spots” such as those Greenpeace claims to have found could go unstated.

Read more at Study: Fukushima health risks underestimated

Posted in *English | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments