Special Fukushima Session at 2012 Ocean Sciences Meeting
In a special session on Tuesday, Feb. 21, during the 2012 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Salt Lake City, researchers will present early results from several field and modeling studies examining the fate of more than a dozen radioactive isotopes in the air, water, and organisms impacted by the Fukushima releases. This is the largest international gathering to date of experts in this area. The session will feature 15 talks, including two by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists.
WHOI talks in the session:
WHOI marine chemist Ken Buesseler led a group of scientists from the U.S., Japan, and Europe on a June 2011 research cruise to study Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the waters off Japan. During the two-week cruise, 17 researchers and technicians collected more than 3,000 liters of water samples for analysis.
Buesseler's talk will focus on cesium-137 and cesium-134 surface distributions and vertical profiles that were obtained during the June 2011 cruise. The highest cesium concentrations found in the waters at that time were 70-100 kilometers off shore, rather than at the closest sampling point, which was 30 km from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Buesseler said the data suggests that the Kuroshio Current—a strong, western boundary current comparable to the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean—prevented contaminated water from spreading southward. Fukushima-derived cesium was found out to at least 600 km off shore. While cesium isotopes are elevated 10-1000 times over prior levels, radiation risks for waters >30 km off Japan are below those generally considered harmful to marine animals and human consumers, though continued releases from the nuclear power plant and accumulation of contaminants in sediments may be of long-term concern.
Presentation Title: Impacts of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plants on the Ocean Date: Tuesday, Feb. 21 Time: 11:30 a.m. Location: Ballroom E
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
"Towards a citizen of the world court"
Comments from Chomsky on the Japanese Children
"Tokyo to the World Citizens Tribunal I am writing in Support of Save the Children lawsuit Fukushima, I Think critically and a Laudable effort to protect the MOST Important Heartbreaking Victims of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, whose Lives Are Being destroyed the children, and generations That Coming may face the same horrors. It was evident at once that the Fukushima disaster would have catastrophic consequences, but its shocking scale has become far more apparent since, with worse to come, very likely. Expert studies already reveal that the scale may reach or even surpass the grotesque level of Chernobyl. Surely the time has come to put an end to reliance on nuclear energy, with its devastating potential human costs, so dramatically revealed once again at Fukushima. In the light of the tragic history of the sole use of nuclear weapons? so far? there could be no more fitting place and time to end the scourge of nuclear power in Japan than the World's Citizens Tribunal meeting in Tokyo. I hope dedicated efforts will be undertaken at the Tribunal to this end.
Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor (Emeritus)
MIT, Cambridge MA USA
MAGIC FAIRY DUST OF FUKUSHIMA
By Anonymous
From those secret places that glow in the dark
in the children’s playgrounds in the city of Fukushima,
gather ye together pocketfuls of that magic fairy dust—
that magic dust what has the power to change all,
change even the most hardened of hearts of those who
willingly sacrifice the children of Fukushima
for the sake of their power and their profits.
Yes, you whose hearts ache for those doomed children,
gather ye up pocketfuls of the magic fairy dust what
has the ability to make those cruel ones once again
one with the abandoned children of Fukushima. Yes,
then take the dust unto the great glittering city of Oz.
Yes, take it unto the government buildings of the powerful leaders, take it unto the tall towers of the greedy giants of Tepco, take it unto the offices of the traitorous corporate media
and sprinkle it on all the sidewalks and steps what lead into the very core of their dark bastions.
Yes, sprinkle in their entrance-ways, in their foyers and hallways, sprinkle it in their offices and in their lounges,
sprinkle it in their elevators and in their bathrooms.
Yes, sprinkle the magic fairy dust on their cars,
on the floors of the restaurants where they eat,
and even sprinkle it on the sidewalks of their homes.
Yes, sprinkle it in the air like confetti and let it fall
down upon them and anoint them with their own handiwork.
For, if it is as they say, for, if it is not magic fairy dust,
then no one need worry, for it is but ordinary dust.
But, if it is magic fairy dust, well then they, too,
will become one with the children of Fukushima; they, too,
will in their hearts change and become real people again.
For, to them, all dust then will become the magic fairy dust
of the playgrounds of the children of Fukushima; and, hence,
so then would the testing and monitoring begin in earnest.
For they, too, like the children and parents of Fukushima,
would not know then just what was magic dust and what was not.
So, let the magic fairy dust of Fukushima do its work, for
it will make all the people and children equal once again,
especially those who think now that they are not equal, but better.
Yes, let the magic fairy dust make them all children of Fukushima,
and, in doing so, so would the testing of dust begin in earnest.
