China is detecting radioactive contamination of its own spinach crops, India has banned Japanese food imports for three months, South Korea is warning children to not go outdoors, and Russia has criticized Japan for its scant information flow and its inadequate emergency response to the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Reuters reports.
Reuters reports that Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, has said "If the current situation continues for a long time, accumulating more radioactive substances, it will have a huge impact on the ocean," referring to uncontrolled discharges of highly radioactively contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Japan has called upon Russia to send a liquid radioactive waste processing ship, although its through-put capacity is quite limited, compared to the 11,500 tons of radioactively contaminated water Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) is now intentionally discharging into the ocean, to free up storage space for even more highly radioactively contaminated water inundating the site. Tepco has also claimed to be constructing a "silt curtain" in the ocean, in a desperate bid to block hazardous radioactive contaminants from flowing into the sea and its food chain.
Tuna in the Pacific near the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant will migrate to U.S. waters. How might this impact U.S. fish stocks and the tuna we eat? ABC News reports.
Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous, and expensive – a point made clear by the tragedy unfolding at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. The heavily damaged nuclear reactors are spreading radioactive waste into the environment. Contamination released in Japan will likely travel all over the world.
Nuclear power is the only source of energy that poses the risk of an accident that could contaminate the lands we leave our children for hundreds of thousands of years.
Nuclear reactors in the U.S. are just as vulnerable to natural disasters, mechanical failures, human errors, and loss of critical electric power supplies. More than 108 million Americans live within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor in the United States. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of radiation.
With Japan’s nuclear tragedy fresh in our collective conscience, now is the time for President Obama to make the bold and necessary move away from dangerous nuclear energy.
President Obama has stood up for renewable energy. First Lady, Michelle Obama, has made children’s health her signature cause. Let’s urge them, as both leaders and parents, to help ensure a healthier future for kids by advocating for energy from clean, renewable sources.
Our children -- and grandchildren – could look back on our generation as the one that started a real Renaissance in renewable energy that could meet much of the nation's energy needs. Renewable and energy efficient technologies can help restore political and economic stability, create jobs and save money…and the planet.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has apparently plugged one of the largest known and most radioactive leaks gushing into the Pacific Ocean by injecting a solution of sodium silicate or "liquid glass" into the ground around a crack in a concrete vault near Unit 2 containing extremely radioactive water measuring 100 rems/hr. TEPCO continues to pour hundreds of tons of water into the damaged reactors to cool partially melted nuclear cores in the continuing fight to contain and bring the accident under control. The cooling operation however is creating a river of highly radioactive water flowing throughout of the reactor building that has spilled over into groundwater and the ocean. Japan is now asking for Russia to bring in a floating radiation treatment facility to begin to filter the radioactive river.
April 7, 2011