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Radioactive Wolves, the first episode of the 30th season of PBS’s Nature, documents current conditions in the area that was forcibly evacuated following the uncontrolled radioactive material releases caused when the operators at the Chernobyl nuclear power station conducted a poorly planned experiment and blew up their power plant.In the absence of human beings, the remaining creatures seem to be doing just fine. I believe that is because it is hard to teach animals to be afraid of radiation; they do not watch many scary movies or news programs featuring breathless commentators interviewing publicity seeking “experts” whose main claim to fame is a lack of actual nuclear plant operating experience. Even long-lived creatures like catfish and eagles show few signs that they are constantly eating contaminated food from an area that has been officially declared to be unfit for habitation.

By the end of the article, I was more than a little suspicious that the politically appointed person driving the actions actually wanted to damage the plant. At the time I could not understand why anyone would do such a thing. That was before I realize how financially rewarding it can be for the establishment hydrocarbon industry to put nuclear energy into a negative light and before I understood just how important selling oil and gas to Europe was to the Soviet Union and how important that activity remains for Russia.I have read a few articles recently about efforts in Belarus to resettle parts of the evacuated areas, but information about the progress of those efforts is difficult to find. In the post Fukushima world, it is important to learn as much as we can about the measured long-term effect of radioactive materials released into the environment. Reactor accidents are events worth avoiding, but it is becoming more evident that the actual results are within the limits of the risk that is routinely accepted in many other industries.If that is true, more people should become comfortable with the prospects of using nuclear energy to benefit mankind and to make life more comfortable and prosperous for us all. The reality seems to be that nuclear accidents are not only rare events, but the consequences that result from a rare, but possible, failure are acceptable.

It should be difficult for a thinking person to watch this show without asking some of the following questions: If radiation is so dangerous, why doesn’t it seem to affect other mammals? If radiation is so dangerous, why do the plants and animals look so normal and healthy? Is there any logical reason to be more fearful of radiation than other risks? If radiation is not as dangerous as some people claim, why were so many people forced to leave their homes and livelihoods? Who benefits by working so hard to make people afraid of radiation and nuclear energy? A long time ago, I read a lengthy technical article that provided the details of the events leading up to the explosion. It was difficult to imagine how any trained operator could keep moving down the path that was taken without calling a halt to the evolution to ask hard questions and demand adequate responses.

Radioactive material from the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been found in tiny sea creatures and ocean water some 186 miles (300 kilometers) off the coast of Japan, revealing the extent of the release and the direction pollutants might take in a future environmental disaster. In some places, the researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) discovered cesium radiation hundreds to thousands of times higher than would be expected naturally, with ocean eddies and larger currents both guiding the " radioactive debris " and concentrating it.

With these results, detailed Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team estimates it will take at least a year or two for the radioactive material released at Fukushima to get across the Pacific Ocean. And that information is useful when looking at all the other pollutants and debris released as a result of the tsunami that destroyed towns up and down the eastern coast of Japan.

Radioactive cesium up to 100 times pre-nuclear disaster levels has been detected in plankton inhabiting the sea far from the crippled nuclear plant following the March 2011 disaster, according to a survey conducted by Japanese and U.S. researchers. The high concentration of cesium, which is believed to derive from the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, suggests that radioactive substances that have leaked from the complex are spreading extensively in the sea.

"Even though radiation levels detected from the plankton samples were still low, there is a possibility that large amounts of cesium will accumulate in fish through the food chain in a phenomenon called biological concentration. We need to continue our survey," he said. "Each species of marine creatures that feed on animal plankton need to be monitored over the long term."

The results of the survey were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States on April 3.

We realize now that the government and the power executives think we are not intelligent enough to understand the technical jargon about nuclear power. Of course, we were not familiar with those esoteric terms when the disaster struck. But we do understand we are facing a nuclear winter on this beautiful archipelago, placed on the Ring of Fire, and may not live long enough even to see such a winter

Since bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan has cultivated a religion that condemns nuclear arms. Along the way, however, Japan metamorphosed into a strange creature that felt immune to things nuclear. Few Japanese left the country within the first weeks after the Fukushima meltdown. We can remain calm even in the midst of a horrible reality. Meanwhile, the falsehood of safe, cheap, and forever clean energy is swept away like the receding sea

Toshio Nishi is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. From 1991 to the present, Nishi has been a distinguished guest professor at Reitaku University in Chiba, Japan, and from 2004 a graduate school professor at Nihon University in Tokyo. [...] From 1985 to 1991, Nishi was a foreign correspondent for NHK Journal, a radio program of Japan’s largest media system. [...] Nishi has been one of the most sought-after speakers on Japan’s national speaking circuit. He has been a member of the board of regents of Executive Forum of Japan since 2000. From 1997 to 1999, Nishi was a commentator for TV Tokyo. Nishi is chairman of the editorial board and a monthly columnist for Kokkai News (a news magazine on politics), Japan’s oldest monthly magazine

An unstoppable tide of radioactive trash and chemical waste from Fukushima is pushing ever closer to North America. An estimated 20 million tons of smashed timber, capsized boats and industrial wreckage is more than halfway across the ocean, based on sightings off Midway by a Russian ship's crew. Safe disposal of the solid waste will be monumental task, but the greater threat lies in the invisible chemical stew mixed with sea water.

This new triple disaster floating from northeast Japan is an unprecedented nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) contamination event. Radioactive isotopes cesium and strontium are by now in the marine food chain, moving up the bio-ladder from plankton to invertebrates like squid and then into fish like salmon and halibut. Sea animals are also exposed to the millions of tons of biological waste from pig farms and untreated sludge from tsunami-engulfed coast of Japan, transporting pathogens including the avian influenza virus, which is known to infect fish and turtles. The chemical contamination, either liquid or leached out of plastic and painted metal, will likely have the most immediate effects of harming human health and exterminating marine animals.

Many chemical compounds are volatile and can evaporate with water to form clouds, which will eventually precipitate as rainfall across Canada and the northern United States. The long-term threat extends far inland to the Rockies and beyond, affecting agriculture, rivers, reservoirs and, eventually, aquifers and well water.   Falsifying Oceanography

News: Interview with a Fukushima citizen, Fukushima Diary, October 2, 2011: From Fukushima to Tokyo, mutated creatures are found. In Tokyo, They caught 3 rats. 2 of the rats have deformed tails and 1 of them has a deformed leg.

Pink katydid, these children look forward to growth, Yomiuri Shimbun, October 2, 2011: Google Translation CAPTION: The larvae were found in rice fields Kubikirigisu Minamiboso Chiba Prefecture Pu Tong ku City の Elementary School 児 の [...] have found a pink grasshopper. Children are kept at the club. According to the Central Prefectural Museum, “Kubikirigisu” female larvae. It is usually green or brown, rarely finds a pink pigment mutation. Once adult, it becomes more vibrant pink.

House mice caught three children in the region murine Tokyo Choice, Shinsuke1: Google Translation I caught three fish houses in the region murine Joto child of Tokyo. Like appearance, the remaining two animals one animal is normal in a malformation was. Underdeveloped tail with two dogs, one animal that did not yet left foot back. Growth slowed even more severe deformities. Malformation may be the effects of radiation

No one wants to think about the massive aqueous deposition of radioactive materials into the Pacific Ocean, that much is now clear. By September estimates of released contamination had risen to over  3,500 terabecquerels of cesium-137 released into the sea directly from the plant between March 11 and the end of May. Another 10,000 terabecquerels of cesium fell into the ocean after escaping from the reactors in the form of steam.

Initially reports had quieted concerns by stating that the materials would be diluted so vastly that the radioactivity would not be able to accumulate, and would not affect the environment.  The experts claimed they would track the deposition and floating radioactive debris field making its way on a trans-Pacific trip to the United States. Apparently, the experts in Japan didn't get the message.  The Japanese regularly tested the seawater only for 'popular' Iodine and Cesium isotopes instead of all known fission-produced radioactive materials, for the first 3 months after the disaster.  By March 31st, radioactive contamination concentration was 4,385 times the legal limit, up from 3,355 times on Tuesday, according to Kyodo. In response, the government had pledged to increase radiation monitoring on land and by sea and to consider increasing the evacuation zone — however time has shown little action would follow these vows.

Experts Don't Fear A Radiation Graveyard Water was constantly required for the workers to be able to get any cooling into Reactors 1-4, when water went in, steam came out.  The ocean quickly became the radiation dumping ground, as untold tonnes of contaminated water has been confirmed to have directly flowed into the ocean, and TEPCO continually assured Japanese citizens that the majority of dispersal would occur over the Pacific.