[Peace-discuss] Japanese warning

[C. G. Estabrook]

Japan's nuclear power operator has chequered past
The company at the centre of a nuclear reactor crisis following the biggest 
earthquake in Japan's recorded history has had a rocky past in an industry 
plagued by scandal.
  | March 12, 2011 |

See 
<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=japans-nuclear-power-operator-has-c>.

On 3/12/11 8:46 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Published on Saturday, March 12, 2011 by the Associated Press
> Huge Rally in Germany: 'Nuclear Power? No Thanks!'
>
> BERLIN - An explosion at a Japanese nuclear power plant has given new fuel to a
> long-running dispute over the technology's future in Germany, where thousands on
> Saturday demonstrated against plans to extend the life of the country's nuclear
> power stations.
>
> Organizers said tens of thousands formed a human chain between the
> Neckarwestheim nuclear plant and the southwestern city of Stuttgart, which are
> 28 miles (45 kilometers) appart- some waving yellow flags with the slogan
> "Nuclear power - no thanks." Police didn't immediately give a figure.
>
> The demonstration was planned long before the post-earthquake blast at Japan's
> Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, but the fears of possible disaster gave an added focus
> to opponents of the technology in Germany.
>
> Saturday's explosion destroyed a building housing the reactor, but a radiation
> leak was decreasing despite fears of a meltdown from damage caused by a powerful
> earthquake and tsunami, officials in Japan said.
>
> Germany's government last year decided to extend the life of its 17 nuclear
> plans for an average 12 extra years. A previous government had said it wanted
> them all shut by 2021.
>
> While Germany - unlike some of its European Union partners - has no plans to
> build any new plants, the extension was divisive.
>
> The mishap in Japan, which comes two weeks before a closely fought state
> election in the region where Saturday's protest was held, prompted new criticism
> from the opposition.
>
> Events at Fukushima "show that, even in a high-tech country like Japan that is
> equipped for all eventualities, nuclear power is an uncontrollable, highly
> dangerous, risky technology," the leadership of the opposition Greens said in a
> statement.
>
> Matthias Miersch, a lawmaker with the main opposition Social Democrats, urged
> the government to scrap immediately the decision to extend German nuclear
> plants' lives. The third opposition party, the Left Party, called for a
> worldwide moratorium on expanding nuclear power capacity.
>
> Nuclear energy has been unpopular in Germany since an explosion at a nuclear
> reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in 1986, sent a cloud of radiation over much of
> Europe.
>
> Chancellor Angela Merkel, however, has argued that Germany needs to keep nuclear
> energy for now as a "bridging technology" until it has developed more renewable
> power sources.
>
> Her deputy, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, on Saturday pushed aside
> questions about the government's nuclear policy.
>
> With thousands likely dead or missing in Japan, "Germany's first answer can't be
> that ... a political argument breaks out here because there are state election
> campaigns going on," he said.
>
> Merkel's center-right coalition faces a tight battle to keep control of the
> regional government in Baden-Wuerttemberg in a March 27 election, and two other
> votes also are looming.
>
> © 2011 Associated Press
>
> On 3/12/11 6:41 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>> I'd say that there's a good chance they are. Have you been reading Bill Keller
>> recently?
>>
>> The Times regularly puts into practice the poet's advice:
>>
>> Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
>> Success in Circuit lies
>> Too bright for our infirm Delight
>> The Truth's superb surprise...
>>
>>
>> On 3/12/11 6:29 PM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:
>>> So what did Broad conclude about "Nuclear Jihad: Can Terrorists Get the Bomb?"?
>>> He's not only written for the NYT, and moreover, not everyone who writes for
>>> the Times is contaminated….
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mar 12, 2011, at 5:55 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>>
>>>> Given the tie-ups between the NYT and the nuclear industry, I'd think we'd
>>>> at least want a second opinion...
>>>>
>>>> The author of this piece is a long-time Timesman who's written on and
>>>> perhaps contributed to US science propaganda. In the run-up to the invasion
>>>> of Iraq he published "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War"
>>>> (2001), and in 2007 he did a "Discovery Channel" program called "Nuclear
>>>> Jihad: Can Terrorists Get the Bomb?"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 3/12/11 5:17 PM, Brussel Morton K. wrote:
>>>>> A fair report by William Broad on the dangers of radioactivity from the
>>>>> severely damaged Japanese reactor. We don't yet know the intensity of its
>>>>> radiations, and so we don't know if they are a serious problem. We are
>>>>> constantly exposed to nuclear radiations, and the safety limits imposed by
>>>>> the responsible agencies are considered super safe; there could be very
>>>>> high multiples of those limits and yet have no observed effects on human
>>>>> health (despite the claims of someone like Wasserman).
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/science/13radiation.html?hp
>>>>>
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