77th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, Japan
Mass and Interfaith Discussion
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
5:15 p.m. MT Mass at the Cathedral Basilica
of St. Francis of Assisi
Followed by Panel Discussion with Interfaith Leaders at 6:15 p.m.
In Japan this is 8:15 am and 9:15 am Wednesday, August 10, 2022
ALBUQUERQUE – Wednesday, August 3, 2022 – IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Join Most Reverend John C. Wester, Archbishop of Santa Fe, on August 9, 2022, for 5:15 p.m. Mountain Time Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Archbishop Wester’s homily will be centered on his pastoral letter, “Living in the Light of Christ’s Peace: A Conversation Toward Nuclear Disarmament,” released on January 11, 2022. Following his homily, Archbishop Wester will offer a healing prayer for those harmed by the production and use of nuclear weapons. This includes victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings in Japan; Trinity Test Downwinders; uranium and nuclear weapons workers in New Mexico and beyond; and any future victims in the accelerating new nuclear arms race.
Mass will be followed by a panel discussion with prominent interfaith leaders on the need for nuclear disarmament and a Q&A session at 6:15 p.m. Confirmed interfaith leaders include Archbishop John C. Wester; Rev. Talitha Arnold, Senior Minister of the United Church of Santa Fe; Mrs. Samia Assed of the Islamic Center of New Mexico in Albuquerque; The Rev. Holly Beaumont of Interfaith Worker Justice; Roshi Joan Halifax of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe; and Former Governor of Cochiti Pueblo, Regis Pecos.
In the pastoral letter, Archbishop Wester reflects upon his trip to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Catholic social teaching on nuclear weapons, the history of the development and production of nuclear weapons in New Mexico, and Jesus’ example of nonviolence. He encourages all to read the pastoral letter and use the reflection questions and suggestions for action. The complete pastoral letter can be accessed here, and the summary here. Panel bios can be found here.
Masks and social distancing are encouraged. For more information, contact the Archdiocese of Santa Fe Office of Social Justice and Respect Life 505.831.8205. –END
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. nuclear chief warned that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine “is completely out of control” and issued an urgent plea to Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that the situation is getting more perilous every day at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the southeastern city of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, soon after their Feb. 24. invasion of Ukraine.
“Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, he said. “What is at stake is extremely serious and extremely grave and dangerous.”
Grossi cited many violations of the plant’s safety, adding that it is “in a place where active war is ongoing,” near Russian-controlled territory.
The physical integrity of the plant hasn’t been respected, he said, citing shelling at the beginning of the war when it was taken over and continuing information from Ukraine and Russia accusing each other of attacks at Zaporizhzhia.
There is “a paradoxical situation” in which the plant is controlled by Russia, but its Ukrainian staff continues to run its nuclear operations, leading to inevitable moments of friction and alleged violence, he said. While the IAEA has some contacts with staff, they are “faulty” and “patchy,” he said.
Grossi said the supply chain of equipment and spare parts has been interrupted, “so we are not sure the plant is getting all it needs.” The IAEA also needs to perform very important inspections to ensure that nuclear material is being safeguarded, “and there is a lot of nuclear material there to be inspected,” he said.
“When you put this together, you have a catalog of things that should never be happening in any nuclear facility,” Grossi said. “And this is why I have been insisting from day one that we have to be able to go there to perform this safety and security evaluation, to do the repairs and to assist as we already did in Chernobyl.”
The Russian capture of Zaporizhzhia renewed fears that the largest of Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors could be damaged, setting off another emergency like the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, which happened about 110 kilometers (65 miles) north of the capital Kyiv.
Russian forces occupied the heavily contaminated site soon after the invasion but handed control back to the Ukrainians at the end of March. Grossi visited Chernobyl on April 27 and tweeted that the level of safety was “like a `red light’ blinking.” But he said Tuesday that the IAEA set up “an assistance mission” at Chernobyl at that time “that has been very, very successful so far.”
The IAEA needs to go to Zaporizhzhia, as it did to Chernobyl, to ascertain the facts of what is actually happening there, to carry out repairs and inspections, and “to prevent a nuclear accident from happening,” Grossi said.
The young Koide Hiroaki chose the field of nuclear engineering because he wanted to contribute to the future of energy-poor Japan. Once he grasped that nuclear power was a technology so risky that it required disposable places and people in every aspect of its operation, he decided to dedicate himself to its abolition. During 40-odd years at the Kyoto University Reactor Research Institute, he and like-minded colleagues dedicated themselves to this cause, offering their expertise to citizen movements and legal struggles, making specialist knowledge accessible to many. The Fukushima nuclear disaster, which began on March 11, 2011, was a crushing blow to their efforts. In the days, months, and decade following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Koide became the preeminent scientific critic of nuclear power.
In 2015, upon retirement from Kyoto University, Koide relocated to Matsumoto City. Surrounded by the Japan Alps, hiking and cultivating his garden, he has continued to exercise his sense of social responsibility through lecturing and writing. On the 3rd day of each month, he has stood at Matsumoto Station with a placard bearing the words, “‘No’ to Abe’s politics.” Rain or shine, for one hour, 30 to 40 citizens join him in silent standing. When Mr. Abe resigned in 2020, Koide rued that he was free to plead ill health and abandon the scene of his misdeeds with utter impunity. Nor did he believe that Mr. Abe’s departure meant the end of his politics—the promotion of nuclear power, the exacerbation of inequality, willful passage of legislation facilitating military engagement and further erosion of Article 9 of the Constitution that renounced “war as a sovereign right,” all freighted with unaddressed acts of corruption. His fellow citizens agreed, and they have continued to stand on the 3rd of each month.
In response to multiple requests for his reaction to the July 8th shooting death, Koide, on July 9th, wrote the essay that follows during a flight to Sapporo to deliver a lecture. Upon learning that at least one recipient who posted it on Facebook had it promptly taken down, Koide decided to post it on his own site. The following translation, made with his permission, is based on that text, with preface added. That version will appear as the lead essay in the fall issue of the quarterly Kisetsu (formerly NO NUKES voice), to appear on September 11.[i]
Norma Field
A Country Descending into War
On July 8th, two days before the House of Councilors election, Mr. Abe was gunned down and died. I wrote the words that follow shortly thereafter. The fears I had initially have unfortunately been born out: the mass media have only busied themselves lauding Mr. Abe’s achievements. I do not know how much this may have impacted the results of the election. What is clear is that the Liberal Democratic Party has won by a landslide, and the forces favoring Constitutional revision have more than the two-thirds majority necessary for such action.
In war, human beings kill each other. In modern wars, the heaviest damage is inflicted on ordinary people who are non-combatants. War must not be waged, whatever the justification. But Mr. Abe has been awarded the highest decoration of the country, the Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum, and it is said that a state funeral will be held in the fall.[ii] Threatening trouble “if the bad guys attack us,” Mr. Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party have steadfastly strengthened the military; they are preparing to revise the Constitution so as to make Japan capable of waging war. And now, many Japanese are supportive of this position. We have fallen on perilous times. My heart sinks.
Thoughts on the Shooting of Mr. Abe
Mr. Abe has been gunned down. He is dead. I am not saddened. If I were to name those whom I detest most on the fingers of one hand, Mr. Abe would be included. He oversaw enactment of the Act on Protection of Specially Designated Secrets; the Legislation for Peace and Security, including the right of collective self-defense (“war law”); and the establishment of a criminal conspiracy law. He launched a bid to host the Olympics in Tokyo to divert attention from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Finally, he worked toward Constitutional revision. Everything he did, everything he was attempting to do, had to do with making money and preparing the path for Japan to become a country capable of waging war.
Mr. Abe was the despicable sort of person who was overbearing toward countries and people deemed weak, and obsequious before the powerful. A thoroughgoing basher of the DPRK (North Korea) who groveled before Mr. Trump, Mr. Abe purchased vast amounts of weaponry as the latter directed. Lying came to him as naturally as breathing. The Moritomo Gakuen elementary school scandal; the Kake Gakuen veterinary school scandal; the “cherry-blossom party” scandal; the two-per household distribution of manifestly substandard “Abe masks” as Covid-19 relief measure—Mr. Abe and the special-interest groups that were his hangers-on spent tax-payer money as freely as if it were their own. When threatened with exposure, he drew on bureaucratic offices at his beck and call to conceal, alter, and destroy evidence and managed to avoid incrimination. In the course of this, an official was even driven to suicide, but Mr. Abe took no responsibility and got off scot-free. I would like to have exposed each one of his misdeeds and seen to his punishment.
It has been my publicly stated position that every human being is irreplaceable, that it is wrong for any of us to kill or be killed. It is true that I wished Mr. Abe might die before he could commit further misdeeds, but I did not think it permissible to kill him. Rather, I find it regrettable that he was killed before he could be charged for the acts he had already committed.
Many people have called the shooting a “barbarous act not permissible in a democratic society,” but I do not subscribe to such a view. All acts, all events, take place within the great flow of history. To attempt an evaluation of individual acts in isolation from history is erroneous. In any case, it stretches credulity to think that there might still be people who believe Japan to be a democratic nation.
Mr. Abe’s policies drove citizens, especially young people, into a life of poverty and robbed them of the capacity to think about politics. While proclaiming that elections were the heart of democracy, he exploited single-seat constituencies to suit his agenda, and however low the turnout, so long as he won, he proceeded to do as he pleased. He took hard-earned tax money and spent it freely on himself and his family members. It would be absurd to even contemplate the amount of taxpayer money poured into nuclear power and wasted. All 57 nuclear power plants in Japan were deemed to be safe and licensed when the Liberal Democratic Party held power. Of course, the Fukushima Daiichi plant was also deemed safe and licensed. It is the accident at this plant that created immense harm and innumerable victims such that even now, 11 years later, a “declaration of nuclear emergency” continues to be in effect, and people continue to suffer. Nevertheless, not a single member of the Liberal Democratic Party, Mr. Abe included, nor a single member of the bureaucracy that has supported this party and operated nuclear power plants has taken responsibility. Even the courts are but an agency of the state that has permitted the operation of nuclear power plants. They refuse to acknowledge state responsibility; nor will they hold the chair, president, and other executives of TEPCO accountable.[iii] Having learned from Fukushima that however tragic an accident may occur, no one will be held to account, they have already announced their continued support of nuclear power generation. Going forward, they talk of doubling the defense budget and turning Japan into a country that can wage war.
A foolish government for a foolish citizenry. If that defines democracy, perhaps so. But if such is the case, the sorrow of the downtrodden and the oppressed will one day explode. I cannot know what was in the mind of the person who shot Mr. Abe. But, to repeat, I will not subscribe to the view denouncing the act from the outset as “unforgivable barbarism.”
What concerns me, with election day for the House of Councilors just around the corner, is people feeling sorry for Mr. Abe and letting that drive their voting. I am, moreover, apprehensive that this incident could be used as justification for bolstering the Peace and Security and conspiracy laws, making this an even more undemocratic, unseemly nation.
[iii] In the sole criminal proceeding issuing from the Fukushima disaster, three TEPCO executives were declared “not guilty” of criminal negligence in Tokyo District Court on September 19, 2019. See Johnson, Fukurai and Hirayama, “Reflections on the TEPCO trial: prosecution and acquittal after Japan’s nuclear meltdown,” APJ -Japan Focus (January 15, 2020). The case is now in the Tokyo High Court, with a decision expected next January. In civil proceedings, on June 17, 2022, the Supreme Court denied state responsibility in the case of four lawsuits filed by evacuees although on March 2, 2022, it had sided with plaintiffs in ordering higher compensation from TEPCO. On July 13, 2022, in a “derivative” lawsuit brought by activist TEPCO shareholders, four executives were ordered to pay $97 billion for the damages, including human suffering, caused by their failure to take tsunami protection measures. This is a record amount ordered by a Japanese court; a lengthy appeals process most certainly lies ahead.
Koide (second from left) standing with fellow citizens in front of Matsumoto Station, 3 April 2019 (photo by Shigekazu Iwane)
A version of this text appeared in Pearls and Irritations: John Menadue’s Public Policy Journal, on August 3, 2022.
Radiation continues to plague local fisheries near Fukushima, Japan, a decade after a massive earthquake caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. On Tuesday, Japanese health officials said that they would halt all consignments of black rockfish from the region because testing in January found excessive levels of radioactivity.
It is not the first time: in February 2021, rockfish catches near Fukushima tested out with five times the permitted radiation level allowed by the Japanese government, registering 500 Becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilo. The fish were caught about four nm off the coast. By comparison, West Coast bluefin tuna test out at less than one Becquerel per kilo.
The landscape surrounding the plant was heavily contaminated with cesium from fallout from the reactor meltdown in 2011. While the Japanese government has remediated human-occupied areas by removing the topsoil, forests and rural areas have not been treated, according to researchers – leaving an abundant reserve of dangerous radioactive isotopes in the surface soil layer. This contamination washes down into streams when it rains, entering the food web.
Posted in*English|Taggedcontamination, fish, Fukushima|Comments Off on Rockfish Caught off Fukushima Still Exceeds Radioactivity Limits via Maritime Executive
BRIDGETON, Mo. – Several contaminated landfills were affected by flood waters this week. FOX 2 was checking out one of the superfund sites when EPA investigators showed up.
Parts of the West Lake Landfill perimeter in Bridgeton sustained flooding Monday. A FOX 2 news crew watched as landfill workers responded, hauling rock to areas washed out while shoring up damage and securing potential weak spots. Water continued pouring through stormwater gates as other workers surveyed the area.
Activist Dawn Chapman was also on scene. She’s been pushing for nuclear waste clean-up for years.
“This was actually our worst-case scenario, she said. “These are subatomic particles. They will get up and move in the flood water.”
She took pictures of Tuesday’s flooding on both sides of the Bridgeton landfill. It’s a spot where the EPA has a plan to remove some of the radioactivity and cap the rest.
[…]
A Bridgeton landfill spokesperson added, “Crews began working yesterday morning at 1:30 to keep $200 million of infrastructure on the site up and running during an unprecedented event. They were successful. The systems stayed up. The water went where it was designed to go.”
Chapman added that it’s reassuring for now.
“I don’t know how much longer we can keep betting that we’re going to get lucky,” she said.
Chapman is still pushing for the federal agency originally responsible for the contamination during the 1950s Manhattan Project to clean up what it left
“Radioactive waste that belongs to the Department of Energy does not need to be on the surface anywhere in St. Louis County,” she said.
