Sunday, October 26, 2014

Dispossession or Denuclearization


I discuss our book, Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization with Jim Fetzer here.




Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization?

We pose the question starkly: Humanity must choose between denuclearization or dispossession.

We document that nuclear power and weapons are connected and their complex fundamentally dispossesses citizens of liberal guarantees, including rights to property, free speech, and the pursuit of happiness.

We explore crisis management of the Fukushima disaster to demonstrate dispossession of rights of property, free speech, and the pursuit of happiness, through examples that include lost livelihoods and Fukushima children’s rising rates of thyroid cancer, among other topics:

See Oiwa, Yuri (2014, August 24) Thyroid cancer diagnosed in 104 young people in Fukushima. The Asahi Shimbun, http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201408240011

We examine the history of radiation health effects to demonstrate historical conflicts between nuclear industry safety-guidelines and scientific studies of the biological effects of “internal emitters,” which are ingested and/or inhaled radionuclides. 

We describe distortions in nuclear industry safety models deriving from invalid modeling techniques.

We demonstrate that nuclear power is market distorting because it externalizes its true costs and relies extensively on generous government subsidies.

We show that governments too often prioritize nuclear interests over democratic principles and practices: For example, we investigate media and popular resistance within Japan to the newly passed “state secrets” law, which is seen by many as directly threatening free speech and public health:

Toshihiro Okuyama and Hiroo Sunaoshi (2013, December 17) State secrets law raises concern about safety of nuclear power plants. The Asahi Shimbun, http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201312170006

We disclose strong public support in Japan and elsewhere for decentralized alternative energy production and we describe oligarchic energy industries’ efforts to maintain centralized control when challenged by the decentralizing production tendencies of alternative energy, such as solar:

Ex-Japanese PM on How Fukushima Meltdown was Worse than Chernobyl and Why He Now Opposes Nuclear Power. (2014, March 11). Democracy Now, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/11/ex_japanese_pm_on_how_fukushima

We are concerned that in the absence of public activism the choices made by governments and industry will prioritize short term profits and vested interests. “Dispossession” is the cumulative effect of these decision criteria in action.  

Nuclear remains seductive in our Hobbesian world of vying nation-states, despite myriad acknowledged hazards, including aging and decaying infrastructures, recurrent nuclear “accidents,” unceasing contamination, and terrorism.  Nuclear seduces even when its effluents threaten the ecosystem and, perhaps, even the human genome. Here is a screenshot from unit 1 steaming this morning:



Vested nuclear interests reign, but democracy is not yet vanquished. We see public demand for systematic denuclearization as critical for long-term human sustainability. The time for political action wanes as scientists predict nuclear power plant accidents will occur with regular frequency:

Severe nuclear reactor accidents likely every 10 to 20 years, European study suggests (2012, May 22). Max-Planck-Gesellschaft http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120522134942.htm

Mikhail Gorbachev noted in his Memoirs that prior to the Chernobyl disaster there had been 151 significant radiation leaks at nuclear power plants around the world.[i] He warned that one or two more accidents would produce contamination far worse than after a nuclear war.[ii] With Fukushima we are living in a highly contaminated age as research subjects with no options to discontinue the experiment.

Change in energy policy is necessary for human sustainability.  Denuclearize or be dispossessed.


WHO WE ARE

We are a diverse group of scholars living on four continents. What unites us is our vision for a sustainable future based in decentralized, sustainable energy.

Contributing editors to Fukushima: Dispossession or Denuclearization? are Antony Boys, Andrew McKillop, Majia Nadesan and Richard Wilcox. Harvey Wasserman, Christopher Busby, Paul Langley, Adam Broinowski, Christian Lystbaek, and The Fukushima Five contribute chapters. Cover artwork by William Banzai7.

Proceeds from the book: Proceeds from the book will be donated to the Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial Team, a team of lawyers who are fighting in the courts in northern Japan to have children in Koriyama City, quite badly contaminated with radiation after the March 11, 2011 
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, evacuated to safe areas at government expense. Please see: http://www.fukushima-sokai.net/ (English) (Japanese) Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/fukushimasokai



[i]           M. Gorbachev (1995) Memoirs. (London: Doubleday), p. 191.
[ii]           C. Neef (24 March 2011) ‘This Reactor Model Is No Good' Documents Show Politburo Skepticism of Chernobyl’, Spiegel, http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/this-reactor-model-is-no-good-documents-show-politburo-skepticism-of-chernobyl-a-752696.html
 

3 comments:

  1. Uranium hexafluoride release tonight at Honeywell Works, Metropolis, IL.

    http://optimalprediction.com/wp/uranium-hexafluoride-release-tonight-at-honeywell-works-metropolis-il/

    ReplyDelete
  2. De"nukular"ization of civilian "fleet" first, denuclearization second.

    That "days since last accident" whiteboard @ NRC seems to have troubles reaching four digits. d'oh

    WHO is regulating the regulators though?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christina MacPherson just did another article about your new book.
    http://nuclear-news.net/2014/11/08/humanity-must-choose-between-denuclearization-or-dispossession/

    ReplyDelete

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