AS radioactive water accumulates, Fuksushima’s fishing industry in despair
Fukushima fishermen forced to test fish for radiation REUTERS, 31 May 13“….The fishermen of Hisanohama, forced out of work by the disaster, have had no choice but to take the only job available – checking contamination levels in fish just offshore from the destroyed nuclear reactor buildings. “We used to be so proud of our fish. They were famous across Japan and we made a decent living out of them,” said 80-year-old Yaoita, who survived the tsunami by taking on the waves and sailing the six-person True Prosperity out to sea.”Now the only thing for us is sampling.”…..
The fishermen and Tepco are in dispute over the utility’s plans to dump 100 tons of groundwater a day from the devastated plant into the sea. The complicated clean-up plan for Fukushima could take 30 years or more. Tepco’s challenge is what to do with the contaminated water that has been pooling at the plant at a rate of 400 tons a day – enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in a week.
So far it has been racing to build tanks to store the contaminated water on the grounds of the plant, in which all the water is kept at the moment.It has also asked fishermen to support a plan to build a “by-pass” that would dump groundwater into the sea before it becomes contaminated by flowing under the reactor’s wreckage.
“We are staunchly against it,” said Tatsuo Niitsuma, 71, who fishes with Yaoita.
MORE CONTAMINATION, LESS HOPE
Representatives from fishing cooperatives met Tepco officials on Thursday to discuss the proposal, with Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to instruct Tepco on what to do, although no final plans were announced. In addition to the “by-pass” Motegi, who also holds the energy portfolio, told Tepco to create “protective walls” in the ground by freezing the soil around the reactors to create an underground barrier to stop groundwater from flowing in and mixing with contaminated water inside the reactor building.
The fishermen, however, worry the “by-pass” plan risks more contamination and delays, possibly ending any hope for the only job they know.
Tepco officials have said it may take as long as four years to fix the problem, but have said they do not need outside help.
The uncertainty and stress have become problems. Many former fishermen live in temporary homes next to people they barely know after losing not only their jobs, but also family members…….. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/31/us-fukushima-fishermen-idUSBRE94U0D620130531
Ionising radiation would not kill astronauts suddenly, (just slowly)
Curiosity flew to Mars in a spacecraft that had shielding similar to what astronauts would have on the new crew vehicle being developed by NASA. The detector picked up an average of 1.8 millisieverts of radiation per day. A human being on the surface of the Earth receives only about 3 millisieverts of radiation in an entire year.
“The radiation environment in deep space is several hundred times more intense than it is on Earth, and that’s even inside a shielded spacecraft,”
“The radiation exposure on a trip to Mars would — barring a super-huge solar event — not be lethal. The concerns are mostly about cancer induction (a so-called ‘late effect’) and damage to the central nervous system,”
Space radiation would make Mars mission hazardous WP, By Joel Achenbach, May 30 Of all the hazards facing a human mission to Mars — something NASA and countless space buffs would love to see at some point — one of the hardest to solve is the radiation that saturates interplanetary space. New data, gathered by NASA’s Curiosity rover as it traveled to Mars, have confirmed that interplanetary space is a hostile medium and suggest that engineers need to find a way to speed up space travel significantly if they hope to reduce radiation exposure……
The effects of interplanetary radiation on the human body are not well understood. Until now, scientists had limited information about how much radiation penetrates a spacecraft during an interplanetary journey. But the Curiosity rover, which bristles with instruments, carried along a Radiation Assessment Detector, and it measured the incoming radiation during its 253-day trip to Mars, which began in November 2011. Continue reading
Aboriginal landowners have been deprived of control over their land
Mabo’s native title victory squandered, says judge The Age, June 1, 2013 Jane Lee Eddie Mabo’s High Court win has been ”squandered”, with native title reduced to something of little practical significance, a retired Federal Court judge says.
Peter Gray, previously the Aboriginal land rights commissioner and deputy president of the National Native Title Tribunal, retired after 29 years at the Federal Court on May 17.
In his farewell speech to the court, he referred to the historic 1992 decision that overturned the terra nullius doctrine that Australia belonged to no one before white settlement, paving the way for native title rights for indigenous people.
”The biggest disappointment in my career has been to see the opportunity given to us by the High Court in the Mabo case squandered,” Mr Gray said. ”The concept of native title has been reduced to something of little practical significance by judges who have been unable to understand, and legislators who have been consciously averse to, the vital relationship between people and land in Aboriginal traditions.”
He said a future generation of Australians had to devise a new native title system that ”recognises and respects the rights of our indigenous peoples and returns to them a measure of control over what, but for colonisation, would have been indisputably theirs…
Perilous finances leading Rio Tinto to close Rossing uranium mine
“The situation is bad,” the source said. The source said Rio Tinto, the Australia-based majority owner of the 
mine, has also been considering selling the mine.
Namibia: Rössing Nearly Closed http://allafrica.com/stories/201305300555.html BY CHAMWE KAIRA, 30 MAY 2013
THE management of Rio Tinto’s Rössing mine was considering placing the uranium mine on care and maintenance like Areva’s Trekkopje as a way of arresting the perilous financial situation the company is facing. Continue reading
Japan marketing nuclear reactors to India, with indecent haste?
India hopeful of inking civil nuclear deal with Japan: PM, Times of India, PTI | May 31, 2013 ONBOARD PM’S SPECIAL AIRCRAFT: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday expressed confidence that India will soon conclude a civil nuclear deal with Japan that will allow Tokyo to export nuclear reactors to the country.
“There have been discussions with Japan and this visit marked a formal move in that direction. I am hopeful that before long we will be able to put our signatures to a civil nuclear energy agreementwith Japan as well,” Singh told reporters on his way back from Japan and Thailand.
A joint statement issued at the end of exhaustive talks between Singh and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe this week had said the two leaders reaffirmed the importance of civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries, ….. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-hopeful-of-inking-civil-nuclear-deal-with-Japan-PM/articleshow/20365669.cms#write
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 