A cross taken from a Nagasaki cathedral after the atomic bombing gets returned 74 years later via Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Posted on 2019/08/08 by nfield

By Matt Field, August 7, 2019

Short on time and fuel, the crew members of the B-29 bomber Bockscar flew over Nagasaki, Japan, scanning for an opening in the clouds. They had already abandoned their initial target, the city of Kokura, due to low visibility. Over Nagasaki, in the vicinity of a massive Mitsubishi arms plant, the crew found the clear patch of sky they needed to complete the mission: to drop the world’s most powerful weapon, a 4.5-ton plutonium bomb dubbed Fat Man. The detonation killed tens of thousands and decimated the city, all in an instant. Amid the ruins, just 500 meters from ground zero, were the collapsed roof, damaged pillars, and charred sculptures of the Urakami Cathedral, the locus of a vibrant Catholic community spawned during Nagasaki’s history as a trading port.

[…]Tanya Maus, the director of Wilmington College’s Peace Resource Center, gave the cross that had hung in the rural southwest Ohio college for decades to the archbishop of Nagasaki on Tuesday.

After seeing visitors from Nagasaki react to the cross—some moved, others perplexed as to how Hooke got a hold of it—Maus reached out to church officials in Nagasaki in April. “I started to think about the idea of ‘should it really be here? Maybe it needs to be in Nagasaki, where people can sort of explore that history more and the meaning of the cross more.’”

At the Peace Resource Center, the cross had been a starting point to engage local Christians in conversations about the atomic bombs and nuclear issues. “For me, it shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Catholic, or whether you’re religious; it’s an issue of humanity–the use of nuclear weapons,” Maus said. “But for some people, that was an entry point to understand the atomic bombings and have a sense of their destructiveness.” […]

“The fact that the United States, a country that in some sense based itself in Christian ethics, was dropping an atomic bomb on a Christian community–I think for me, I hoped that would make a strong impact on people,” Maus said.

“For me the cross represents human depravity. The utter stripping away of values, in this case Christian values, but it could be any values, that keep human beings from killing each other and destroying each other,” Maus said. “Part of giving it back was letting go of that and making it accessible to people who want to find their own meaning in it.”

[…]

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‘Atomic-bombed cross’ returns to Nagasaki as a symbol of hope via The Asahi Shimbun

Posted on 2019/08/08 by nfield

NAGASAKI–A Christian cross that survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki and cemented an otherwise-unlikely friendship between a Japanese bishop and a U.S. Marine has returned home to Urakami Cathedral here after 74 years.

Clasping the gold-trimmed wooden artifact, Mitsuaki Takami, the 73-year-old archbishop of Nagasaki, said Aug. 7, “I am delighted the cross is alive.”

“Atomic bomb victims will die, but the cross will remain as a living witness to what happened in Nagasaki,” he added.

Over the years, the cross was kept by Walter Hooke, a U.S. Marine who was stationed in Nagasaki from October 1945 until February 1946.

Hooke, a devout Catholic, found the cross in the ruins of Urakami Cathedral after the city’s Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing.

Later, he was befriended by Aijiro Yamaguchi, who was then bishop of Nagasaki. He was away from Nagasaki on another assignment when the atomic bomb was dropped.

Yamaguchi presented the artifact to Hooke, who sent it to his mother in New York.

After returning to the United States, Hooke always mounted the cross in his family’s living room, side by side with photographs of his fellow Marines.

Years after Hooke returned to the United States, he and Yamaguchi still kept in touch.

Hooke donated the cross to the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College in Ohio in 1982.

He died in 2010 at the age of 97.

Tanya Maus, director of the center who brought the cross to Nagasaki, suggested that in another time and place Hooke and Yamaguchi might have been in a position to kill each other.

“The cross is an embodiment of the brutality of war,” she said. “The cross is a cry to the U.S. government and governments of other countries that possess nuclear weapons to stop the use of nuclear weapons,” Maus said after handing over the artifact to Takami in Urakami Cathedral.

[…]

Construction of the cathedral was completed in 1925. It was located about 500 meters from ground zero, the center of the atomic explosion. On the morning of Aug. 9, 1945, bishops and dozens of followers were praying there as usual. They were all killed.

Takami was exposed to radiation as a fetus. He grew up listening to his mother talking about the splendor of the cathedral.

“The cross tells how brutal humans can be, and at the same time, it gives us hope,” Takami said.

He plans to display it as the “atomic-bombed cross.”

[…]

(This article was written by Mizuki Enomoto and Masato Tainaka.)

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5G and the FCC: 10 Reasons Why You Should Care via NRDC

Posted on 2019/08/08 by nfield

June 21, 2019 Sharon Buccino

[…]

2. Wireless communication touches every aspect of life. Smart phones are used by billions of people across the globe. As volume of data increases and delay decreases, wireless service is expanding beyond person-to-person communication. The possibility of the “Internet of Things” combined with Artificial Intelligence will impact every aspect of human life including transportation, education and health care.

3. The next generation of wireless technology—5G—is dramatically different from previous versions. Telecommunication is possible through use of the electromagnetic spectrum.  5G will enable more data to be carried more quickly, but its signal does not travel as far so a denser network of cells and other facilities is needed to deploy it.

5G promises to deliver dramatically more information at faster speeds enabling activities like driverless cars and remote surgery.  The new technologies require the signal to be repeated more often – prompting companies such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to construct new towers and other infrastructure in communities across the country.  Unfortunately, many parts of the country still do not have access to basic broadband services.

[…]

6. In March 2018, the FCC eliminated environmental and historical review for siting certain cell towers and other wireless facilities (FCC Order 18-30). Despite the license needed to provide wireless services, the FCC determined that there was no federal role in the construction of facilities needed to provide these services. In addition to NRDC, 19 tribes have challenged the FCC’s action along with the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held oral argument in the case on March 15, 2019.  Briefs from the case can be found here and you can listen to the oral argument here.  (18-1135)

10. While the FCC has limited the review by others, the Commission at the same time has refused to update its own health and environmental guidelines. The Commission’s guidelines date from the 1990’s. In 2012, the General Accountability Office found that the existing guidelines may not reflect current knowledge and recommended that the FCC formally reassess its guidelines. The FCC’s guidelines address only one aspect of potential harm from electromagnetic radiation—heat. The current guidelines do not address other ways in which exposure to increasing electromagnetic radiation from wireless communications can harm human health, as well as the natural systems around us on which all life depends. 

The U.S. National Toxicology Program conducted rodent studies to help clarify the potential health hazards of radio frequency radiation (RFR). According to my NRDC colleague, Dr. Jennifer Sass, the results (which have been subjected to expert peer review and public comment) show that long-term high exposures to RFR used by 2G and 3G cell phones are associated with an elevated risk of cancer, particularly in heart and brain cells (NTP 2018). This is consistent with the previous hazard assessment of the World Health Organization’s cancer experts, which concluded that there was a possible link (Group 2B) to brain cancer in people with RFR exposures (IARC 2011). Both government agencies warn that the public should take pragmatic steps to reduce exposures (IARC Director, May 2011; NTP Fact Sheet, Nov 2018).

Montgomery County, Maryland has sued the FCC for failing to update its health and environmental guidelines.  This case is consolidated in the Ninth Circuit with other challenges to Order 18-133 as discussed above.  (19-70146)

[…]

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The ‘sarcophagus’ that entombed the Chernobyl nuclear disaster for 30 years is at a high risk to collapse via National Post

Posted on 2019/08/08 by yukimiyamotodepaul

The sarcophagus, hastily set up to stop radioactive contamination from spreading, was never built to last

In an attempt to contain as much of the radioactive materials as possible, 600,000 workers from the USSR quickly began to build a large structure around the destroyed reactor, often without the necessary protective gear. Workers rushed to fill in open spaces with thousands of cubic metres of concrete, helicopters dropped debris directly into the reactor, and miners dug to prevent searing nuclear runoff from melting through the foundation of the base and into the ground below.

The entire section of the facility was covered by massive concrete walls — its ominous appearance gave it the nickname the “sarcophagus”.

n the end, the structure was able to prevent hundreds of tonnes of radioactive contaminants from getting out. Thirty-one people died of radiation poisoning during or after construction was completed.

The sarcophagus had to be set up as fast as possible — construction only took about five months — and was never built to last. LiveScience reports that the building lacks bolted joints, and openings in the roof have allowed water to seep in and corrode the structure. Now, more than 30 years after its construction, its collapse is imminent.

[…]

But dismantling the entombed nuclear reactor won’t mean that the plant will once again be exposed to the open air — an even bigger containment shell has already been put in place directly above it.

Called the “New Safe Confinement”, the $2.2 billion CAD project is a massive arched dome that was built to completely engulf and contain the reactor and its fragile shell. It was announced in 2007 and completed earlier this year. To avoid possible contamination, the 354-foot-high structure was built next to the reactor, and was wheeled over to fit over the site.

[…]

According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the NSC is the “largest moveable land-based structure ever built” and is expected to last 100 years.

The sarcophagus will be completely cordoned off from the outside world as cranes begin to dismantle its structure, which is expected to be completed by 2023.

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福島第1原発　処理水タンク「22年夏に満杯」、東電 via 日本経済新聞

Posted on 2019/08/08 by yukimiyamotodepaul

東京電力ホールディングスは福島第1原子力発電所で汚染した水を浄化した後の処理水をためるタンクが2022年夏ごろに満杯になるとする初めての試算をまとめた。処理水は薄めて海に流しても安全上問題ないとされるが、風評被害を懸念する地元が反対しており、政府は結論を出せないでいる。

福島第1原発は11年の東日本大震災の影響で原子炉内の核燃料が溶け落ちるメルトダウン（炉心溶融）事故を起こした。地下水などが原発内に入り、放射性物質に汚染された水が絶えず発生している。

東電は放射性物質を取り除く専用装置で汚染水を浄化した処理水をタンクにためてきた。原発敷地内のタンク960基に約115万トンを保管している。計画では20年末までに137万トン分のタンクを確保する見通しだ。

汚染水は18年度には1日平均約170トン発生した。東電は20年中に同150トンまで減らす目標だ。仮にこれを達成できても、22年夏～秋にはタンクが満杯になると試算した。9日に経済産業省が開く処理水に関する有識者会議で試算値を示す。

処理水には放射性物質のトリチウムが残る。だが、国内外で運転中の原発でもトリチウムを含む水は発生しており、放射線の影響が小さいとして海に放出している。

続きは福島第1原発　処理水タンク「22年夏に満杯」、東電

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Japan to resume effort to tackle contaminated water problem at Fukushima via USNews

Posted on 2019/08/08 by yukimiyamotodepaul

TOKYO (REUTERS) – JAPAN is resuming efforts to disperse a build-up of contaminated water at Tokyo Electric Power’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant that is stalling progress on cleaning up the site, the government said on Thursday.

A panel of experts will meet on Friday for the first time in eight months to consider options to get rid of the water, Japan’s government said in briefing documents it released.

[…]

In 2016, the Japanese government estimated that the total cost of plant dismantling, decontamination of affected areas, and compensation, would be 21.5 trillion yen ($203 billion), or about a fifth of the country’s annual budget.

Tokyo won the bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics around six years ago, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declaring that Fukushima was “under control” in his final pitch to the International Olympic Committee.

At nuclear sites around the world, contaminated water is treated to remove all radioactive particles except tritium, a relatively harmless isotope of hydrogen hard to separate from water and released into the environment.

But because of missteps such as last year’s admission that it had not removed everything except tritium from the tanks, Tepco faces difficulties winning the trust of regional fisherman who oppose the water’s release into the ocean.

Some countries, including South Korea, still have restrictions on produce from areas around the Fukushima site.

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福島原発、排気筒本体の解体開始 放射性物質含む蒸気ベントに使用 via 京都新聞

Posted on 2019/08/07 by nfield

東京電力は７日、東日本大震災で事故を起こした福島第１原発１、２号機の共用排気筒（高さ約１２０ｍ）の上半分を解体する作業で、排気筒本体の切断を開始した。大型クレーンでつり下げた切断装置を遠隔操作し、排気筒の上端から約３ｍずつ輪切りにしていく。

　この日は切断装置に取り付けられているロボットを使って最上端を横から円状に切り取り、地上に下ろす計画だったが、切断装置に不具合が相次ぎ、円の約半分付近まで切れ目を入れた段階で中断した。

　排気筒は原発事故発生時、１号機の原子炉格納容器の圧力を下げるため、放射性物質を含む蒸気を外部に放出する「ベント（排気）」に使われた。

原文

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Sharp drop in number of Hiroshima ‘black rain’ support program users via The Mainichi

Posted on 2019/08/07 by yukimiyamotodepaul

OSAKA — The number of people who use the central government’s counseling and support services for those who claim to have been exposed to radioactive “black rain” that fell on Hiroshima and surrounding areas in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city in 1945 is plunging, it has been learned.

[…]

The Hiroshima Municipal Government and other bodies have demanded that “black rain areas” eligible for public assistance be expanded based on their independent survey results. In the Peace Declaration read out by the mayor of Hiroshima every year on Aug. 6 on the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city, Mayor Kazumi Matsui and his predecessors have called for the expansion of the areas for 10 consecutive years. However, the national government has not complied with the request. 

Those who experienced black rain are calling for the swift adoption of broader black rain areas as they seek official recognition as A-bomb survivors, or hibakusha, and eligibility for public assistance. 

The true state of black rain remains unclear even today. The national government has recognized that an area 11 kilometers wide within 19 kilometers northwest of the Hiroshima hypocenter was affected by heavy black rain and designated the area as subject to public assistance in 1976. Those who were within the area can undergo the same health checkups as those for certified A-bomb survivors and are entitled to survivors’ certificates if they develop cancer and other health issues. 

As there were many people who complained of health problems stemming from black rain outside the certified areas, however, the Hiroshima prefectural and municipal governments conducted a survey targeting roughly 37,000 residents in 2008 and concluded that black rain fell on an area some six times larger than recognized. 

However, a panel at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare refused to broaden the area by arguing that “There are no clear grounds to say radioactive fallout stemming from the atomic bomb existed.” 
In October 2013, the health ministry launched the counseling and support program to alleviate anxieties among residents, after concluding that their complaints about health issues were attributable to “psychological fears.” 

Under the state-funded program, the Hiroshima prefectural and municipal governments provide health counseling by doctors and others. According to the Hiroshima Municipal Government, a total of 316 people used the program in fiscal 2013 over a six-month period from its launch. The figure has since declined to 150 in fiscal 2014, 104 in fiscal 2015, 98 in fiscal 2016, 73 in fiscal 2017 and 50 in fiscal 2018.

[…]

The prefectural and municipal governments have consistently demanded the black rain areas be expanded, and Hiroshima Mayor Matsui referred to the issue in the Peace Declaration on Aug. 6 this year. After the peace memorial ceremony held that day, a participant at a gathering to listen to requests from representatives of hibakusha groups pleaded, “We urge the central government to scramble to provide relief by facing up to reality, instead of waiting for the black rain victims to die.” Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Takumi Nemoto, however, did not change his position on the issue. 

At the Hiroshima District Court, a lawsuit filed by 88 plaintiffs who claim to have been exposed to black rain is pending as they seek to receive A-bomb survivors’ certificates and other assistance. Due to their old age, however, plaintiffs have died one after another.

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「黒い雨」相談利用者が急減　被害者「国は死を待たず救援急いで」via 毎日新聞

Posted on 2019/08/07 by yukimiyamotodepaul

米軍による原爆投下後に広島市や周辺に降った放射性物質を含む「黒い雨」について、援護対象区域外で浴びたと訴える人を対象にした国の相談支援事業の利用者が急減している。開始時の2013年度には半年で300人を超えたが、18年度は6分の1の50人で、国は高齢化による対象者の減少などが一因とみている。市などは独自の調査結果を基に雨の地域をより広く考え、広島市長の平和宣言では今年も含め10年連続で援護対象区域の拡大を要望しているが、国は応じていない。被爆者としての援護を求める体験者らは、早急な実現を訴えている。

　黒い雨の実態は不明だが、国は爆心地から北西に長さ19キロ、幅11キロを大雨が降ったと認め、1976年に援護対象区域に指定。区域内にいた人は被爆者と同じ健康診断を受けられ、がんなどになれば被爆者健康手帳が取得できる。

ただ、区域外でも黒い雨による健康被害を訴える人は多く、市と広島県は08年、住民約3万7000人を対象に調査を実施。国の援護対象区域の6倍相当の地域に雨が降ったと結論付けたが、厚生労働省の検討会は「原爆由来の放射性降下物が存在した明確な根拠が見いだせない」として区域拡大を認めなかった。

厚労省は13年10月、健康被害の訴えは「精神的不安に起因」などとして、不安軽減の相談支援事業を始めた。国が費用を負担し、市と県が医師らによる健康相談などを受け付ける。市によると、延べ利用者数は▽13年度（6カ月）316人▽14年度150人▽15年度104人▽16年度98人▽17年度73人▽18年度50人。厚労省の担当者は「不安が解消した人が一定数いたことに加え、高齢化で体験者自体が少なくなった影響もあるのでは」と分析する。

市と県は一貫して援護対象区域の拡大を求め、松井一実市長は6日の平和宣言でも言及した。式典後の「被爆者代表から要望を聞く会」では「国は黒い雨被害者が死ぬのを待つのではなく、現実をみて救援を急いでほしい」と訴えがあったが、根本匠厚労相は従来の立場を変えなかった。

続きは「黒い雨」相談利用者が急減　被害者「国は死を待たず救援急いで」

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Chernobyl’s children are taking vacation breaks to escape radiation, but there aren’t enough families to host them via World Economic Forum

Posted on 2019/08/07 by yukimiyamotodepaul

Europe is still reeling from the radioactive legacy of Chernobyl, a 1986 nuclear disaster that resulted in widespread contamination in Belarus, Ukraine, and Western Russia.

More than 30 years after the core of a nuclear reactor opened at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, locals near the plant are still exposed to radioactive contaminants through their food and water supply. In 2018, scientists discovered that milk in Ukrainian villages contained five times the amount of cesiumconsidered safe for adults and 12 times the safe limit for children.

As second-generation victims of Chernobyl, children growing up near the disaster zone have seen health problems since birth such as enlarged thyroids, cancer, and respiratory illnesses. Some environmentalists and pediatricians have linked these health problems to contaminated food and drink.
In 1991, Adi Roche, then a volunteer in the Chernobyl zone, received a fax from Belarusian and Ukrainian doctors, asking her to remove children from the area so their bodies could have time to recover from radiation exposure. The fax inspired Roche to found Chernobyl Children International, an organization that sets up vacations in Ireland for children living in contaminated areas. To date, the group has helped organize stays for around 25,000 children, though it estimates that around 1 million children live in zones affected by the disaster.

[…]

In 2008, a program called “Blue Summer” began organizing summer stays in Portugal for Ukranian children. The group paid for transportation and health insurance, while host families covered living expenses.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a charity called Overflowing Hands hosts children ages 6 to 16 for a month and a half over the summer. The charity also pays for pediatrician appointments and dental care.
In the UK, multiple organizations — including the Chernobyl Children’s Project, Friends of Chernobyl’s Children, and Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline — welcome kids for “recuperative” holidays. Some of these children are sick with cancer, while others haven’t shown any signs of adverse health effects.

[…]

While on vacation, children can develop healthier immune systems and lower their levels of radiation. A chairwoman from the Children’s Lifeline recently told the BBC that, after a three-week period of recovery in Scotland, “it takes up to two years for the radiation to build back up again.”

There are also psychological benefits to staying where the Chernobyl tragedy is out of sight. A 2005 UN report determined that mental health issues “pose a far greater threat to local communities than does radiation exposure.” Children living in contaminated zones may suffer anxiety about becoming ill or having their lives cut short.

But the number of families willing to host these children is limited.

Both the Chernobyl Children’s Project and the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline recently told the BBC they had seen a decline in host families in recent years. This year, the Children’s Project said they could only host 600 children compared to 3,500 each year in the early 2000s.

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