Synopsis: The first anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster will be marked by San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace with the showing of a film, "Fukushima, Never Again," on March 3 and a commemoration on March 11 for the thousands who survived the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Japanese plant last March 11, killing and injuring thousands and leaving many others missing.
The San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, a non-profit organization primarily devoted to reducing the dangers that the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant poses to the Central Coast and extended areas, will mark the first anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster last March 11 in Japan with the showing of a film, "Fukishima, Never Again" on Saturday, March 3, and a commemoration on March 11 for those who survived the earthquake and tsunami that hit the nuclear plant, killing and injuring thousands and leaving many others missing.
The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami reportedly killed 15,698, injured an estimated 5,800 and left 4,666 missing, as of last year. Some scientists predict that one million lives also will be lost to cancer in the region (Earthquake Report). No up-to-date estimates of killed, injured and missing apparently are available, due to the failure of government agencies in Japan and the international media to keep track.
Charges of cover-up regarding the impact of the earthquake/tsunami have recently been leveled at the Japanese government (Japanese Government Hid Worst Case Scenario)
Mothers for Peace is scheduled to present the showing of "Fukushima, Never Again" starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 3, at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1344 Nipomo Street, San Luis Obispo. The public is invited, and admission is free. A brief introduction of "Fukushima, Never Again" and discussion afterward will be provided by the Labor Video Project, which produced the film. Copies will be available for purchase at the event or at Fukushima Never Again.
"Fukushima, Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in northeast Japan last March 11 and exposes the cover-up by TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), which owns and has operated the Fukushima plant, and the Japanese government. This is the first film shown in the United States that interviews Fukushima nuclear power experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of the children and the people of Japan and the world.
The residents and citizens were forced to buy their own Geiger counters and radiation dosimeters. The government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds in the Fukushima area was safe and then, when the people found out it was contaminated and sought to remove the topsoil, the government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.
The film reveals the criminal cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and the management of GE, which built the plant in Fukushima. Included is an interview with Kei Sugaoka, the GE nuclear plant inspector from the San Francisco Bay Area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE.
This documentary film allows the voices of the people and workers speaking out about the reality of the disaster and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the world as the U.S. government and the nuclear industry continue to push for more new plants and government subsidies.
Joining Mothers for Peace in sponsoring the film event is a new statewide organization, Nuclear Free California, which is seeking to shut down California's two nuclear plants, Diablo Canyon and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station north of San Diego. San Onofre was closed on January 31 after a radioactive leak was discovered and remains shut down. Nuclear Free California is a network of some 50 local organizations, whose unique strategy is to promote the use of renewables and conservation to enable replacement of energy from the two nuclear plants in the state. (Slo Coast Journal - October 2011)
Starting at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 11, at Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, Chorro and Monterey Streets, San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace invites members of the public to gather to remember and to express support for the survivors of the Fukushima disaster.
Radiation releases from the failed nuclear plant and radioactive waste storage pools continue to contaminate the land, food supply, air and ocean there. Close to 100,000 people are still displaced and many more are suffering since the agricultural and fishing industries in which they worked have been decimated, Mothers for Peace reported.
Works of art created by members of the public at the an Art After Dark event between 6 and 9 p.m. on Friday, March 2, at the Salon on Monterey, 1435 Monterey St., will be displayed at the commemoration on Sunday, March 11.
Seshen, who moved here from Japan shortly after the March 11 Fukushima disaster, will share her observations and perspective at the event. In addition, local geologist Eric Layman will give startling information regarding local earthquake faults and how they impact Diablo Canyon nuclear safety (Slo Coast Journal - September 2011)
Music will be presented by Prey 4 Phyre, a singer and guitar player duo.
Meanwhile, Mothers for Peace announced on February 15 that 37 clean energy groups had submitted a formal rulemaking petition to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) seeking adoption of new regulations to expand emergency evacuation zones and improve emergency response planning around U.S. nuclear reactors, including Diablo Canyon and San Onofre.
Calling on the NRC to incorporate the real-world lessons of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the proposed rules would expand existing emergency evacuation zones from 10 to 25 miles around nuclear reactors and establish a new zone from 25 to 50 miles around reactors for which utilities would have to identify and publicize potential evacuation routes. Another improvement would require utilities and state and local governments to practice emergency drills for a natural disaster that either initiates or occurs concurrently to a nuclear meltdown.
Currently, utilities do not have to show the capability to conduct an evacuation during a natural disaster — even though, as seen at Fukushima, natural disasters can cause nuclear meltdowns. The petition would also expand the "ingestion pathway zone," which monitors food, milk and water, from 50 miles to 100 miles around reactors.
One third of the population in the U.S., or roughly 120 million people, lives within a 50-mile radius of a nuclear reactor, Mothers for Peace stated. Current emergency planning rules require utilities to develop and exercise emergency evacuation plans within a 10-mile radius around reactors. The "ingestion pathway" currently consists of an area about 50 miles in radius and focuses on actions appropriate to protect the food ingestion pathway.
"Eighty per cent of the airborne radiation released from Fukushima went directly over the Pacific Ocean," explained Michael Mariotte, executive director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), which initiated the petition. "Even so, the Fukushima evacuation zone extended more than 25 miles to the northwest of the site, and the NRC and U.S. State Department both recommended that U.S. citizens within 50 miles of Fukushima evacuate. Such evacuations could not be effectively conducted in the U.S. under current emergency planning regulations. We need to be better prepared, and we can't rely on favorable wind patterns to protect the American people."
Dominique French, who is leading the NIRS campaign to improve emergency response planning, added, "The NRC has relied primarily on the 1979 Three Mile Island accident and subsequent computerized accident simulations to support its emergency planning rules. But first at Chernobyl in 1986, and now at Fukushima, the real world has trumped any possible simulation. The fact is that far too many Americans live near nuclear reactors, but outside existing emergency planning zones. Based on real-life experience, these people need better protection."
"There is no invisible lead curtain surrounding nuclear power plants. We need to incorporate lessons learned from previous nuclear disasters. At the very least, we should stop pretending that emergency evacuation zones of 10 miles are adequate, and expand planning to include residents living within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant," said Eric Epstein of Three Mile Island Alert in Pennsylvania. "On Friday, March 30, 1979--while school was in session--Governor Thornburgh recommended a '‘precautionary evacuation' for preschool children and pregnant women living within five miles of Three Mile Island. The targeted population was estimated at 5,000, but more than 144,000 central Pennsylvanians from 50 miles away fled the area--further proof that a radiological disaster is not a controlled field trip."
"Indian Point, 24 miles from New York City, sits at the epicenter of the most demographically dense area of any nuclear reactor in the nation. Even under normal conditions, traffic is congested and regional infrastructure is highly stressed. During the severe snow, rain and wind storms of the past few years, large swaths of the region have been brought to a near standstill. And yet the NRC ignores all these realities, preferring to play with its computer models. This is a dangerous game," said Michel Lee, Steering Committee, Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.
"In lieu of the recent activities around nuclear plants both in the United States and in Japan it had become obvious that a new Emergency Planning Zones be implemented. The Shell Bluff Community is asking that the NRC establish new guidelines that would expand the radius to protect the citizens that are in harm's way of these facilities. After all, Japan is still experiencing unfolding occurrences that are taking place outside of their projected protected zone. The United States must move to protect its citizens who are in these dangerous pathways," said Charles N. Utley, community organizer for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
"Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Diablo Canyon nuclear plant is seen as a poster child by the nuclear industry: it is in a "low population zone", and not visible from any roads. However, families and businesses downwind from the nuclear plant and waste storage site do not consider themselves expendable, nor does invisibility negate the threat from two reactors and the radioactive wastes accumulated since 1984 that are stored on a site surrounded by 13 earthquake faults," said Jane Swanson of California's San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace.
"Emergency plans of local and state governments advise residents that in the event of a radiological release from Diablo Canyon nuclear plant there are two choices, depending on which way the winds blow: get in our cars in an attempt to evacuate, or "shelter in place." The former leads to congested traffic on the one freeway serving the central coast of California (Highway 101) as well-founded worries of families overload the freeway and bring it to a halt. Sheltering means using masking tape around doors and windows and turning off all air intakes into our homes for an unspecified time, in the hope that the emergency lasts only a few days rather than the many months as at Fukushima. Emergency plans need to be made effective. If this is not possible, then nuclear plants need to be shut down. Human lives cannot be traded for kilowatt hours," added Swanson.
Mothers for Peace went on to say that at Fukushima, and earlier at Chernobyl, interdiction of contaminated food and liquids has occurred farther than 100 miles from the accident sites. Japan is already acting to improve its emergency response capability, in the event nuclear reactors ever are allowed to operate there again. Prior to the disaster at Fukushima, the emergency planning zones for nuclear emergencies in Japan was between eight to 10 kilometers (five to six miles). The zone is now being expanded to 30 kilometers (18 miles). The actual Fukushima evacuation zone was a 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius around the site, although areas to the northwest, where the heaviest radiation on land was measured, were evacuated more than 25 miles away.
Those submitting the rulemaking petition include: Nuclear Information and Resource Service (national organization and lead author of the petition), Bellefonte Efficiency and Sustainability Team (TN), Beyond Nuclear (national), Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (Southeast), Citizens Action Coalition (IN), Citizen Power (PA), Citizens Awareness Network (Northeast), Citizens Within a 10-Mile Radius (MA), Citizens Environmental Coalition (NY), Coalition for a Nuclear Free Great Lakes (Great Lakes).
Concerned Citizens of Shell Bluff (GA), Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, Council on Intelligent Energy and Conservation Policy (NY), Don't Waste Arizona, Don't Waste Michigan, The Ecology Party of Florida, Empire State Consumer Project Inc. (NY), Grandmothers, Mothers, and More for Energy Safety (GRAMMES) (NJ), Greenpeace (national), Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (NY), Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch (NJ), Missourians for Safe Energy, New England Coalition, Nuclear Energy Information Service (IL), NC WARN, (NC), Northwest Environmental Advocates (OR), Not On Our Fault Line (VA), People's Alliance for Clean Energy (VA), Promoting Health and Sustainable Energy (PHASE) (NY), Public Citizen Energy Program (national), San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace (CA), SEED Coalition (TX), Sierra Club of South Carolina, Three Mile Island Alert (PA), Tri-Valley CARE (CA), Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah), Vermont Public Interest Research Group, We The People Inc. (TN).
