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August 24, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Tepco’s License to Kill: Japan’s Dispersal of Radioactive Waste — No Accident Anymore

South Korean protesters lampooned Japanese authorities who said you could drink the 1.37 million tonnes of radioactive wastewater they began pumping into the Pacific Ocean Aug. 24.

 

By John LaForge

Japan is set to start pumping millions of gallons of radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean on Thurs., August 24, from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (Tepco’s) devastated triple reactor meltdown site at Fukushima.

This deliberate contamination of the public commons — no accident this time — is a license to kill, a criminally reckless endangerment of sea life and the food web. Yet the 1992 ban on ocean dumping of radioactive waste applies only to barrels thrown from ships, not liquids sent into the sea through pipes. Further, the Law of the Sea allows victims to bring legal action only after an alleged harm has occurred, and then puts the burden of proof on victims to show that their illness(es) were caused by a particular radioactive poison.

The nuclear industry and its government protectors run this game of radioactive waste dispersal using bailouts, bribes, and the lengthy “latency period” — the time between one’s radioactive contamination and the appearance of cancer, heart disease, etc. — which produces radiation victims years or decades after the “Fuku sushi” they ate. The nuclear industry has always depended on the fact that its chance of losing a radiation damage lawsuit is somewhere between a slim one and a fat one.

The catastrophic Fukushima earthquake-tsunami-meltdown-cubed has forced Tepco’s overseers of the three ferociously radioactive masses of melted uranium/plutonium fuel, or “corium,” to continuously pour cold water on to the unapproachable wreckage. Combined with rivers of groundwater that gushes through quake-smashed cracks in reactor foundation, the water becomes poisoned with radioactive uranium, cobalt, strontium, cesium, plutonium, and more. The failed Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) has not removed these or other deadly isotopes from the wastewater now stored onshore in giant tanks. The New York Times reported Aug. 21 that, “According to Tepco’s website, just 30 percent of the approximately 473,000 tons of water in the tanks have been fully treated to the point that only tritium remains.”

Spewing radioactivity is standard industry practice

It’s no surprise that reactor-friendly governments and the International Atomic Energy Agency (whose mission is to promote nuclear reactor proliferation and to lie about radiation risks), have given Japan’s oceanic pollution scheme their seal of approval. All of them have repeatedly declared that dumping radioactive wastes into public water bodies is ordinary industrial practice and legal around the world. With straight faces, the authorities chant in unison that reactor operations contaminate the environment with radioactive liquids all day, every day, and this is somehow intended to demonstrate that such contamination is natural and danger “negligible.”

At La Hague, France and at Sellafield, England, giant reactor waste complexes process waste fuel rods, producing billions of gallons of highly radioactive liquids, and for decades the carcinogenic offal has been pumped directly into the North Sea (by France) and the Irish Sea (by England). Dr. Chris Busby, scientific secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk which studied internal radiation contamination, has found cancer clusters among children along the Irish seacoast — likely caused by internal exposure to Sellafield’s radioactive emissions.

Scientists, ecologists, medical authorities, environmentalists, historians, and oceanographers have repeatedly pointed out that there are practical alternatives to the dumping, and that nothing positive can result from adding radioactive pollution to the environment and the food web. The British Medical Journal only last week published the latest in a long series of studies [1] that have found again and again that exposure to low levels of radiation is more harmful than scientists previously thought. [2]

The Japanese government and Tepco hope that their global dispersal of reactor disaster waste will save the industry enough money that it can stay afloat against the astronomical costs of post-Fukushima liability and disaster response. But like the plague of mass shootings in the United States, Thursday’s start of Japan’s globalized pollution solution raises the chaos and deadliness of reactor operations to new heights, while the authorities claim from their bribery zones that nothing can be done about either hand guns or nuclear reactors.

Notes

[1] British Medical Journal, Aug. 16, 2023, study finds the risk of cancer death after exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation underestimated.

[2] “Ionising radiation and risk of death from leukaemia and lymphoma in radiation-monitored workers,” The Lancet, July 7, 2015; “Even low-level radioactivity is damaging, scientists conclude,” Science Daily, Nov. 13, 2012; “With New Data, a Debate on Low-Level Radiation,” New York Times, July 19, 2005; “Epidemiology: Russian Cancer Study Adds to the Indictment of Low-Dose Radiation,” Science, Nov. 11, 2005; “Study: No Radiation Level Safe,” Associated Press, June 29, 2005; “No dose too low,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Nov/Dec. 1997;  “Study: Even Low-Dose Radiation is Dangerous,” Reuters, Oct. 9, 1997; “Radiation health effects understated, study shows,” AP, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, July 25, 1995; “Researcher discovers greater radiation risk,” AP, Milwaukee Journal, Dec. 9, 1992; “Radiation risks may be more than believed,” Los Angeles Times, March 20, 1991; “International Panel Urges Cut In Allowable Radiation Dose,” New York Times, June 23, 1990; “Higher Cancer Risk Found in Low-Level Radiation,” New York Times, Dec. 20, 1989; “No Safe Radiation,” Scientific American, August 1958.

–John LaForge is a co-director of Nukewatch and a regular contributor to CounterPunch and PeaceVoice.

 

 

Filed Under: Environment, Environmental Justice, Fukushima, Nuclear Power, Radiation Exposure, Radioactive Waste, Weekly Column

August 15, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

International activists blockade NATO nuclear base in Germany

May be an image of 6 people and text that says 'BAN THE BOMBS CCLIMATE TE COMMUNIT ABOLISH SH NATO ABSCHAFFEN! ABOLI NATO PEACE B61NKES NUKES SARM ARM ILLEGA IMMORAL CK AND THE SAVE THE THENUKES P PLAN OUT THEDO'

L to R: Frits Ter Kuile, Mark Colville, Dennis DuVall, Susan Crane, Brian Terrell. Photo by Theo Kayser

On Monday 14 August, eleven activists (two from the Netherlands, three from Germany, one from Italy, five from the U.S.) blocked an entrance to Büchel Air Force Base in Germany being is used for construction work underway in preparation for the arrival of new U.S. B61-12 hydrogen bombs, and new U.S. F-35 jet fighters which are set to replace the base’s German Tornado fighter jets.

U.S. Air Force veteran Dennis Duvall, 81, wrote in paint on the driveway “Tatort” (crime scene) and “Atombomben” (atom bombs), reminding German speakers that nuclear “deterrence” is a conspiracy to commit war crimes under the Germany’s Basic Law (its constitution) and international treaty law.

The group also pasted Articles 1 and 2 of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons to the access road. Articles I and II of the treaty forbid any transfer of nuclear weapons to other countries.

Local police detained the eleven briefly, and recorded their personal identification. After about two hours, the police gave the activists a one-day “ban-&-bar letter” prior to their release.

The five U.S. citizens who were detained are a part of a delegation of ten anti-nuclear activists who earlier protested the stationing of U.S. nuclear weapons at Volkel Air Force Base in The Netherlands.

Acknowledging the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the group conducted similar protests at the NATO base Volkel in the Netherlands which also hosts U.S. nuclear weapons. The abolitionists blocked the base’s main gate August 7, blocked the run way August 9, and attempted to dig a tunnel under the base’s fence August 10. Twenty-six arrests were made during series the actions at Volkel, and four U.S. citizens were ordered not to visit the European Union for one year.

The group is calling on German society to abolish nuclear weapons and reduce the CO2 emissions by the armed forces to zero, saying “We have to learn to solve our conflicts in such a way that other people and fellow creatures, large and small, plant and animal, do not suffer.”

The following blocked the construction gate at Büchel:  Susan Crane, Brian Terrell, Ellen Grady, Dennis Duvall, and Mark Colville, all from the United States; Judith Samson, Christiane Danowski, and Beate Körsgen, from  Germany; Salvatore Vaccaro from Italy; and Sjaak Tensen and Frits ter Kuile from The Netherlands.

— Videotaped statements from some activists here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLetmOQd9kKvCOF5uqkDQxi1z_UrMK148b

— Additional background information at:  https://noelhuis.nl/peace-camp-volkel-2023/

Filed Under: B61 Bombs in Europe, Direct Action, Nuclear Weapons, US Bombs Out of Germany

August 3, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Wake up Justice! Protest in front of the Federal Constitutional Court

Germany̓s nationwide campaign Büchel is everywhere!Nuclear Weapons-Free Now! — of the parent network Abolish Nuclear Weapons – Start with Us! — invites you to a protest action during the International Week for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.

Protest action on Friday, September 22, 2023, in Karlsruhe.

A “Justitia” performance rally is planned in front of the Constitutional Court and in the city center.

Time: Noon to 2:30 p.m.: rally in front of the Federal Constitutional Court and from there walk at 3 p.m. to Stephansplatz, among other places, for flyer distribution until 4 p.m.

Climate-neutral
: After the rally, a part of the protesters will ride about 100 km in a bicycle delegation over the weekend to Strasbourg, France. On Monday, September 25, the cyclers will join a rally there at the European Court of Human Rights.

Background:
NATO̓s “nuclear sharing” is practiced at the ari base Büchel. German pilots train to fly and drop U.S. nuclear bombs onto target areas in an “emergency”. NATO operational doctrine also includes a possible first use!

 

For 30 years, the peace movement has been organizing diverse protests at the gates of the Büchel base. It demands that the approx. 20 U.S. nuclear bombs be withdrawn and that our government accede to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. We demand a Europe without nuclear sharing and the observance of international law!

Because of the catastrophic dangers that any use of nuclear weapons entail, and the criminality of nuclear deterrence, peace activists have repeatedly been compelled to resort to civil resistance. There were blockades and also go-in actions. The latter have been prosecuted and the people charged have been convicted and sentenced. Nineteen people have filed Constitutional Court complaints (appeals) over the last 26 years, directly related to civil resistance to the U.S. nuclear weapons at “Fliegerhorst Büchel” in the Eifel. None of the 19 complaints have been accepted for review by the Constitutional Court, Germany’s highest.

All defendants complain that they were denied their “right to a fair trial” under Article 6 of charter of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because the hearing of exculpatory witnesses was refused by the courts. They were thus denied their “right to a fair hearing” under Article 103 of Germany’s Basic Law. International law stands above national law. Therefore, the designated (international law) experts should have been admitted as witnesses in the court proceedings.

 

Germany’s Constitutional Court has so far shirked its responsibility to deal with the concerns of the peace movement‘s appeals, without presenting any reasons. Lower court written decisions were merely upheld.

(For 1.5 years we have been waiting for a reply to the first application! In addition, on March 15, 2010, a civil lawsuit for the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Germany by a resident who lives in the immediate vicinity of the nuclear weapons site was rejected.) This is despite the fact that under Articles I and II of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Germany is obliged, among other things, not to accept the transfer opf nuclear weapons either directly or indirectly. The unlawful transfer of U.S. nuclear weapons practiced by our government threatens our right to life and physical integrity (See Art. 2 and 3, ECHR). That is why currently four (soon six) nuclear resisters who were rejected by the Constitutional Court have filed complaints with the ECHR.

 

With our protest we demand a review of the nuclear weapons deployment by the Supreme Courts!

Please register:
for Karlsruhe, also for overnight stays, and separately for the “Peace bike tour nuclear weapons free 2023” and/or the “Protest in Strasbourg”.

Contact:
Do you have questions about the action? Then write an email to our campaign spokesperson Marion Küpker: aktionen@atomwaffenfrei.jetzt.

Do you have questions about the campaign? Then send us an email to: info@atomwaffenfrei.jetzt.

 www.atomwaffenfrei.de
 www.buechel-atombombenfrei.de
 www.facebook.com/atomwaffenfrei.jetzt
 @atomwaffenfrei

We ask you: Support us with a donation!

By direct bank transfer:
Special account at Förderverein Frieden e.V.
DE78 4306 0967 4041 8604 04

Filed Under: B61 Bombs in Europe, Direct Action, Nuclear Weapons, US Bombs Out of Germany

August 3, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

U.S. Activists to Join Protests Against U.S. Nuclear Weapons Deployed in The Netherlands and Germany

A delegation of U.S. peace activists will travel to The Netherlands and Germany this August to join international nuclear weapons protests focused on removing the U.S. nuclear weapons still stationed at the Netherlands’ Volkel Air Base, 85 miles south of Amsterdam, and at Germany’s Büchel Air Force Base, southeast of Cologne. The group of 11 anti-nuclear activists hail from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, and New York.

 

Both the Volkel and Büchel Air Bases each maintain approximately 15-to-20 U.S. hydrogen bombs known as B61s* as part of NATO’s so-called “nuclear sharing” program in which foreign fighter jets and their pilots routinely rehearse attacks on Russia using the U.S. H-bombs. Alarmingly, in the midst of the ongoing war in Ukraine, operation “Air Defender 2023,” NATO’s largest-ever nuclear attack exercise, ran from June 14 to 23 in the skies over Germany. War planes involved in the practice included U.S. F-35s, F-15s and F-16s from the U.S., Turkey and Greece; Eurofighters from Spain and the U.K.; German Tornadoes; U.S. and Finnish F/A-18s; Hungarian Gripens; and U.S. A-10 ground-attack jets, according to CNN. The A-10 jets fire the controversially toxic and radioactive shells known as depleted uranium munitions.

 

Coordinated by the Amsterdam Catholic Worker community, Peace Camp Volkel runs from August 4 to 10 and is focused on “climate and a future without nuclear weapons.” Participants from around Europe and the United States will conduct nonviolence trainings, and blockades, “go-in” actions, and other protests. On 10 August, the U.S. activists will travel from Volkel to Kail, Germany for four days of protest actions directed at the Büchel Air Force Base, which like Volkel is now undergoing major construction in preparation for the delivery of replacement weapons, the new B61-12 gravity bomb, now in production in the United States.

 

Most of the U.S. delegates to the two peace camps have worked for years in anti-war and disarmament campaigns, and several have been imprisoned in the United States for nonviolent actions taken against the war system. Ellen Grady, from Ithaca, New York and a member of the delegation said, “We have to take some responsibility for these U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in Europe, because they threaten genocidal violence and they destabilize the reckless and expanding war in Ukraine.”

 

The eleven U.S. participants are: JACKIE ALLEN, of Hartford, Conn.; VERA ANDERSON, 35, from New York, NY; MARK COLVILLE from New Haven, Conn.; SUSAN CRANE, 75, from Redwood City, Calif.; DENNIS DuVALL, 81, from Radeberg, Germany (formerly of Prescott, Ariz.); JENN GALLER, 27, of Baltimore, MD; ELLEN GRADY, 60, from Ithaca, New York; THEO KAYSER, 33, of St Louis, Missouri; ERIC MARTIN 38, of Los Angeles, Calif.; SUSAN SCHALLER, 69, of Boston, Mass.; and BRIAN TERRELL, 67, of Maloy, Iowa.

 

Previous international camps involving “go-in” actions at the Büchel base have resulted in trespass charges and series of court trials and appeals in which resisters have attempted to put “nuclear sharing” on trial. The opponents argue that the defense of “crime prevention” excuses their actions in view of the 1970 Nonproliferation Treaty which forbids any transfer of nuclear weapons between treaty signers including the U.S., The Netherlands and Germany. Among this year’s delegates, Ms. Crane will in September be the 5th nuclear resister to appeal from Germany to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasberg regarding alleged errors by German courts which have refused to consider defense arguments offered by the resisters. The European Court has yet to decide on any of the previous appeals.  [Biographies of the U.S. participants are available upon request.]

_________________________

* De Morgen (Antwerp), July 16, 2019, https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/eindelijk-zwart-op-wit-er-liggen-amerikaanse-kernwapens-in-belgie~b051dc18/ (De Morgen obtained and published a leaked official NATO report detailing the locations and numbers of U.S. nuclear weapons currently stationed in five NATO states.)

Filed Under: B61 Bombs in Europe, Direct Action, Nuclear Weapons, US Bombs Out of Germany

July 31, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2023

Click the links below to access articles from the Summer 2023 Quarterly Newsletter. Page numbers take you to the pdf of each page as they appear in the print version. Individual articles are also tagged by issue category.

Page 1

“Small Modular Reactors” Touted by Profiteers and Regulators
Leaks at Minnesota Reactor
U.S. Adding Uranium Weapons to long List of Ukraine War Systems

Page 2

Earth Day ‘23: A Newly Post-Nuclear Germany vs. California’s Reactor Relapse
Germany Shutters Remaining Reactors

Page 3

Ukraine De-Escalation Can Start with Ending Nuclear Weapons “Sharing”
Stop Holtec’s Radioactive Wastewater Dump

Page 4 

Seeking Nuclear Justice: Voices from the Marshallese Diaspora in Arkansas
Decades of Radioactive Dumping Tied to Cancers at Coldwater Creek

Page 5

New Mexico Bans & NRC Approves Radioactive Waste Facility
Empty Rad Waste Train Derails in Vermont
Los Alamos Radioactive Breaches
War Resisters Interrupt Construction Work at Büchel Airbase, Germany
Rad Waste Dump Decisions: Consent or Bribery?
Poison Power Means Dirty Politics
Ukraine: Cooling Pond at Reactor Site at Risk

Page 6

Nukewatch Staffer Appeals to European Court, Claims Unfair Trial Court Decisions in Germany

Page 7

1945 Infant Mortality Tells the Story of Trinity
Drive for Illegal Uranium Mining in New Mexico; Cleanup Obligations Unfulfilled

Page 8

Domino Effect: 12-Year Series of Failed Fixes at Fukushima
Plutonium Spread Long Distances from Fukushima

Filed Under: Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter

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