Will UN ever get it right on nuclear? (Answer: probably not.)

"The president of the UN General Assembly, Nassir Abdulaziz Al- Nasser, (pictured) said that Fukushima was a "stark reminder" that ensuring nuclear safety requires the maintenance of the highest nuclear safety and security standards, as well as long-term disaster preparedness and strong international cooperation."

Actually, no, "ensuring nuclear safety" actualy "requires" closing all nuclear power plants worldwide, and safeguarding the waste on site until such a time when (if) a better solution is found - something that has eluded humankind since the dawn of the Atomic Age and may never be resolved.

A short NHK news clip from the Fukushima eye-witnesses presentation in NYC

View here. http://www.greenreport.it/_new/index.php?lang=it&page=default&id=12439

(Pictured: Sachiko Sato (far left) and daughter Mina, 13. AP Photo.

Update on November 7, 2011 by admin

And read Sachiko Sato's compelling appeal.

Fukushima survivors and Japanese activists call for protest at UN HQ for nuclear power abolition -- join us!

Image courtesy of Green Action JapanThis event has its own Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140320216063913

Date and time: Thursday, September 22, 5pm to 6 pm

 

Location: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (47th Street and 1st Avenue, New York City) -- enter at 2nd Avenue & 47th Street -- near to the United Nations HQ

  

On September 22nd, a high-level meeting on nuclear safety will be held at the United Nations HQ.

On that same day New York City is joined by a delegation from Japan calling for an end to nuclear energy worldwide, and calling for the UN to stop promoting nuclear energy. This, in the aftermath of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe.

Ever since March 11, 2011, the people of Japan have been struggling desperately to demand their government take more responsible measures to protect people's -- especially children's -- health from Fukushima's radioactive fallout. Also, the global nuclear establishment, including the US government, states that nuclear power is here to stay, and there is no alternative to it - whatever the cost for our lives. This is not acceptable, especially given the safer, cleaner, and ever more cost effective alternatives of renewables and efficiency.

Please join us and raise our voices together to challenge the United Nations for the abolishment of nuclear energy.

Delegation from Japan includes:

Sachiko Sato, an organic farmer from Fukushima, Japan with her 13- and 17-year old children

Kaori Izumi, director of Shut Tomari, Hokkaido, Japan

Yukiko Anzai, organic farmer, also from near Tomari Nuclear Power Plant in Hokkaido, Japan

Aileen Mioko Smith, Executive Director of Green Action Japan, a veteran anti-nuclear campaigner

PRINT YOUR POSTERS TO HOLD AT THE PROTEST RALLY: http://fukushima.greenacti on-japan.org/

HEAR THE DELEGATION SPEAK EARLIER ON THE SAME DAY AT 12PM: http://www.facebook.com/ev ent.php?eid=120290221404116

Fukushima farmers, families, activists from Japan - press conference

Two organic farmers from Japan, their children and fellow Japanese anti-nuclear campaigners made a plea for the safety of Fukushima’s children at a press conference in Washington, DC today.

“Our hearts have been torn apart in the Fukushima community because of the nuclear disaster,” said Sachiko Sato, (pictured far left with Aileen Mioko Smith/AP Photo) a natural farmer from Fukushima Prefecture, who evacuated four of her six children two days after the March 11 Fukushima nuclear reactor catastrophe began. “The community is split among those who evacuated and those who stayed, creating a chasm between former neighbors. This is the first health effect of this catastrophe.”

Mrs. Sato described how, not trusting official figures, she herself measured radiation levels at local schools, finding that 75% of schools should be considered radiation control areas and therefore dangerous for children. Meanwhile, the government raised the allowable radiation dose rate by 20 times to 20 microsieverts per year including for children. “Do they imagine that people can suddenly withstand doses of radiation 20 times greater than were previously allowed?” she asked. Many people cannot evacuate as they would leave behind aging, frail parents, Sato said. “Or they don’t want to lose their job or tear their children away from everything they know. Families have been ripped apart.”

Read the full press release.

Siemens closes nuclear chapter

The German industrial and engineering conglomerate, Siemens, following on the heels of its government's decision to abandon nuclear energy, has withdrawn entirely from the nuclear industry. It will build no further nuclear plants and is canceling its nuclear joint venture with Russia's Rosatom. Siemens built all 17 of Germany's existing nuclear plants. Siemens chief executive, Peter Loescher, (pictured) praised the Merkel government's decision to close all its nuclear plants by 2022 and aim for an 80% to 100% renewable energy economy by 2050, calling it "a project of the century."