Dr. Chris Busby has worked on this question of the effect of low-level radiation and dosage for many years. After Fukushima, he worked with Joe Mangano and Dr. Janette Sherman of the Radiation and Public Health Project in New York, which has been studying the impacts of radiation on children's health for several decades, on a study of congenital hypothyroidism in California after the Fukushima meltdown. Sadly, the number of babies with this condition who were born between March 17 and Dec 31, 2011 increased by 28 percent as compared with babies born before the exposures, which supports the hypothesis that pregnant women were exposed to iodine 131 in water and in the air.
In an article posted at Counterpunch (and elsewhere on the Internet) about the study, which has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Open Journal of Pediatric Medicine, Busby points out the possible link between these abnormalities and the plume of radioactive iodine-131 that reached the West Coast within four days of the Fukishima collapse and concludes that " there is really no possible alternative explanation" for the spike. The increase in congenital hypothyroidism in babies "is one more instance of the fact the current radiation risk model, employed by the governments of every nation, is massively insecure for predicting harm from internal radionuclide exposures."
While low level radiation from an external source may do little damage to the body, once ingested or inhaled it sets off a chain of events analogous to a radioactive explosion; that is, one atom, robbed of one of its electrons by the ingested ion, creates havoc by seeking to replace that electron from a neighboring atom, and atom by atom the radioactive invasion spreads. The radiation risk model may work for external sources, writes Busby, but for internal contamination "it is like comparing warming yourself in front of the fire with eating a hot coal. Or comparing a punch to stabbing. Same dose, same energy. Very different effects."
Plus, as Dr. Helen Caldicott repeatedly points out, when you get your cancer 20 years later, it does not carry a marker to indicate where you got it.
Even before Fukushima, there was cesium in the Pacific Ocean from so many bomb tests done in the Pacific Islands. (There were over 2000 bombs exploded since the first atomic explosion in Alamogordo, NM.) These substances-- cesium 137, iodine 131, tritium, plutonium, and their daughters-- remain dangerous for decades, and they bio-accumulate in the tissues of the body. Now they are bio-accumulating in the environment; and in that sense, Fukushima just adds insult to existing injury. Little by little, in the vast seas and the high stratosphere, these substances are steadily increasing. Every little drop helps add to the abnormal radioactive load we all carry; plutonium has been found in pregnant mothers and newborns and is said to be present in the body of every American. Embryos and young children are particularly sensitive to the effects of radiation because their cells are dividing rapidly. The consequences for human life and all biological creatures across generations could be significant, and, if so, the effects will be irreversible. Are well-lit shopping centers worth that risk? Can't we reduce our need for electrical energy, and invest in existing alternatives?
The looming danger of Fukushima, meanwhile, is not limited to low doses contaminating the food chain. A plume of radioactive materials from the meltdown is on its way to the West Coast. It is expected to show up early next year. No one knows what effect that material will have on the algae, the fish, and the other creatures that will be exposed to it.
Worse yet, Reactor #4 is in great danger of collapse. It is listing to one side and could easily implode if a strong earthquake or tsunami occurs. Stored in the building are 1300 fuel rods, many of them bent or broken. If these fuel rods are exposed to the air, their zirconium cladding, the protective coating on the rods, could ignite, causing an atomic explosion estimated by nuclear engineer Arne Gundersen to be the equivalent of 15,000 Hiroshima bombs. Such an explosion could wipe out Japan completely, and send high-level contamination flying to the West Coast of North America, forcing its evacuation. Surely such intense airborne contaminants would then continue to make their way across the country, affecting food, water and soil in its wake.
To prevent such a catastrophe, the Tokyo Electric Company, TEPCO, is currently endeavoring to remove the fuel rods bundle by bundle. Any small error could lead to a criticality event of enormous proportions. Updates on the progress of this effort, which began November 18, may be found daily at the Tokyo News, the Japan Times, and an informative site, http://www.enenews.com/
According to anti-nuclear journalist Harvey Wasserman ( www.nukefree.com ) and Arne Gundersen (www.fairewinds.org), among others, TEPCO is not qualified to perform such a sophisticated operation. Says Gundersen, the company is not a nuclear engineering company; it is just the nuclear power plant operator. A petition to engage the global community in overseeing the delicate work of removing the fuel rods was presented to the United Nations on November 7 with 170,000 signatures; as yet there has been no response. TEPCO had refused international assistance, but after a typhoon the following week doubled the amount of radioactive water being released on a daily basis, the company finally gave up its proud resistance and invited the world to help. IAEA scientists have been assisting the operation since then, but as they are promoters of nuclear power, it is by no means certain that their reports will be reliable.
In the United States, the media silence on this disaster has been deafening. President Obama has said nothing; critics charge that his inaction is due to the support he receives from Excelon, a major nuclear power company. It's staggering that the world has not sounded a global call to stop using nuclear reactors entirely, whether for electrical power or for war. But there are hopeful stirrings below the surface. Since Fukushima, Germany and Japan have both taken steps to give up their nuclear power plants. In the United States, where there are 23 nuclear power plants built by General Electric on the same model as Fukushima's faulty plant, a number of power plants are being closed: the Vermont Yankee, Dominion Energy's Kewaunee in Wisconsin, California's San Onofre, and Duke's Crystal River plant in Florida have been closed, and New Jersey's Oyster Creek is slated to close in 2019.
"The likelihood of someone else going ahead with a new nuclear plant today is very low indeed," said Jonathan Arnold, a Deutsche Bank analyst. "They're no longer the least- cost alternative in most circumstances."
It's possible that slowly and without fanfare, nuclear power will go the way of other experiments that failed, and slowly, over decades, nuclear bombs will follow the same happy path to extinction.
It's possible.
In the meantime, it will be decades before the work wraps up at Fukushima at a projected cost of half a trillion dollars, says Gundersen. So it may be best not to eat the fish from the Pacific. It might give you "a disease of the mind."
Stephanie Hiller is an independent journalist and editor based in Santa Fe. She blogs at http://stephaniehiller.wordpress.com
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