Fukushima reactor 4 requires urgent intervention; coalition calls for emergency UN action to halt catastrophic release of radiation (http://www.NaturalNews.com) Kyoto, Japan — On 30 April, seventy-two Japanese NGO organizations lead by Shut Tomari and Green Action send an urgent request to the UN and Japanese government urging immediate action to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel. The letter was endorsed by experts from Japan and abroad.The letter warned that the seriously damaged Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool contains Cesium-137 (Cs-137) that is equivalent to 10 times the amount released at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain, this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire. The letter urged the United Nations to organize a Nuclear Safety Summit to take up the crucial problem of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool. The letter stated that the United Nations should establish an independent assessment team on Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 and coordinate international assistance in order to stabilize the unit’s spent nuclear fuel and prevent radiological consequences with potentially catastrophic consequences. Letters were sent to both UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, the latter asking that Japan ask immediately for the UN’s help. Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies at the Fukushima Daiichi plant sit in pools vulnerable to future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived radioactivity than released at Chernobyl. Kaori Izumi of Shut Tomari stated, “Fukushima Daiichi is no longer a Japanese issue but is an international issue. It is imperative for the Japanese government and the international community to work together on this crisis before it becomes too late.” Nuclear experts from the US and Japan such as Arnie Gundersen, Robert Alvarez, Hiroaki Koide, Masashi Goto, and Mitsuhei Murata, a former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland, and, Akio Matsumura, a former UN diplomat have continually warned against the high risk of the Fukushima Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool. Shut Tomari and Green Action are seeking endorsements from civil organizations abroad (deadline 20 May). More Japanese civil organizations are expected to sign on in addition to the seventy-two organizations. (Deadline for signatures: 20 May.) For full text of letter/endorsements/signatories, see: http://wp.me/p1FMPy-B6 Press release issued by: Shut Tomari (Japan),
Mark Goldes Co-founder, Chava Energy CEO, Aesop Institute 301A North Main Street Sebastopol, CA 95472 www.chavaenergy.com www.aesopinstitute.org 707 861-9070 707 497-3551 fax ________________________________________ From: Not Me [energya...@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2012 7:53 AM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Subject: Re: [Vo]:Time bombs and the need to decentralize energy How about some actual quantities, instead of just saying "huge" amounts of radioactivites. "The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site contains nearly half of the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel)." Source: http://www.fukushima311watchdogs.org/share.php?partager=1260 Note: this source is definitely not pro-nuclear. The storage pool at reactor 4 contains about 1500 spent fuel rods. This amounts to less than 1/6 of the total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site. If all of the fuel at Daichi amounts to less than half of the Cs-137 previously released into the environment, release of all the Cs-137 in the storage pool at reactor 4 would amount to less than 8% of the amount previously released into the environment. As stated previously, there is no conceivable mechanism that would release all the material in the storage pool at reactor 4. Since the half-life of Cs-137 is 30 years, the majority of the previously released amounts are still active in the environment. Any release of Cs-137 from the storage pool at reactor 4 would only increase the amount of Cs-137 in the environment by a negligible amount, certainly not enough to endanger human life anywhere but the in the immediate surrounding of the plant. People who continue to spread this fear-mongering propaganda have zero scientific credibility. If there is a further accident at Fukushima-Daichi that results in a release of some of the spent fuel, the fear-mongers will be responsible for more bad health effects through added stress on the scientifically illiterate than the radiation release could ever cause. Arnie Gunderson, who used to build nuclear fuel pools, has stated if this building collapses he sees it likely to produce sufficient fallout to endanger human life everywhere in the Northern hemisphere. See ENENews.com for ongoing reports on Fukushima.
