Close Pickering Campaign in High Gear! Greenpeace weighs in…

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** More information added to this post on Dec. 7/16. See below!

The campaign by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance to ensure that the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station (PNGS) is shut down at the end of its current license period (2018) is in high gear. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has made it clear they want to run the plant for yet another 10 years, & will be asking for a license out to 2028.

Pushing a very old nuclear plant (situated in the midst of a huge population base, on the shores of Lake Ontario, drinking water source for millions) with a variety of safety & environmental concerns, & a very checkered history indeed, long-long-long past its “best before” date.

Let’s not forget to mention emergency “plans” that would be about as much use as a sheet of wet tissue paper in the event the proverbial you-know-what hits the fan.

You’ll find a recent update from OCAA here.  It’s got plenty of useful information in it!

** be sure to check out their info on tritium. Also added in to this site’s Tritium section.

Be sure to take a look at these short YouTubes they’ve created, too:

 

*** Greenpeace weighs in with 3 reasons to close Pickering

 

“A major factor that contributed to the accident was the widespread assumption in Japan that its nuclear power plants were so safe that an accident of this magnitude was simply unthinkable. This assumption was accepted by nuclear power plant operators and was not challenged by regulators or by the Government. As a result, Japan was not sufficiently prepared for a severe nuclear accident in March 2011.” [August 2015 Report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Foreword by the Director General]

“There was an implicit assumption that such a severe accident could not happen and thus insufficient attention was paid to such an accident by authorities.” –Toshimitsu Homma of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in April 2013 at an international conference on Emergency Management held in Ottawa

“The Commission has verified that there was a lag in upgrading nuclear emergency preparedness and complex disaster countermeasures, and attributes this to regulators’ negative attitudes toward revising and improving existing emergency plans.” – from The official report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission http://www.nirs.org/fukushima/naiic_report.pdf  (pg. 19)

“A “manmade” disaster: The TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and TEPCO, and the lack of governance by said parties. They effectively betrayed the nation’s right to be safe from nuclear accidents. Therefore, we conclude that the accident was clearly “manmade.” We believe that the root causes were the organizational and regulatory systems that supported faulty rationales for decisions and actions, rather than issues relating to the competency of any specific individual. (see Recommendation 1)” — from The official report of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (pg. 16)

“…What part of Fukushima don’t you understand? If you don’t make the modifications [re: safety & emergency planning] you run the risk of destroying the fabric of a country. It happened at Chernobyl, and it’s happening right now in Japan…” – Arnie Gundersen in an interview about the 3rd anniversary of the Fukushima accident, in March 2014.    http://tinyurl.com/ntuvzmd

“Complacency and hubris are the worst enemies to nuclear safety.” – Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at USC who worked on the National Academy of Sciences July 2014 report http://goo.gl/xw6BHE

“What Dr. Gerstein shows is that reasonable people, who are not malicious, and whose intent is not to kill or injure other people, will nonetheless risk killing vast numbers of people. And they will do it predictably, with awareness …  They knew the risks from the beginning, at every stage … the leaders chose, in the face of serious warnings, to consciously take chances that risked disaster … Men in power are willing to risk any number of human lives to avoid an otherwise certain loss to themselves, a sure reversal of their own prospects in the short run.” – Daniel Ellsberg, quoted in the Marc Gerstein book Flirting with Disaster – Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental (also quoted by Arnie Gundersen in the Greenpeace report Lessons from Fukushima) More great quotes

Nuclear “regulatory capture” – a global pattern

 

Nukes. ‘Perfect Storm’ A-Brewing?

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** note on November 23/16. An item has been added in below, to the section on the CNSC Whistleblower letter. Lately, the news about glaring lapses in nuclear “safety” (an oxymoron if ever there was one!) seems to be coming thick & fast.

Failure of “regulators” to actually regulate.

  • Leaks. Spills

  • & whistleblowers!

  • A rising chorus of whistleblowers

Some who are being listened to (one hopes!); some who are not.

This will be by absolutely no means a thorough list.

But one with enough information to surely make even the most die-hard nuclear supporter give pause.

NRC Petition

In March (2016), 7 electrical engineers employed by the U.S. nuclear “regulator,” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) put in a petition alleging dangerous safety issues at U.S. reactors, & calling on the NRC to either fix the situations, or shut the plants down.

* Read more about this here

Canadian Groups Call on Prime Minister Trudeau

Also in March (2016), more than 10 groups called on the Canadian federal government to do a review of the Nuclear Safety & Control Act, alleging that “Modernization of the NSCA is urgently needed in light of the lack of institutional independence on the part of Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and lessons learned from the Fukushima disaster.”

* Full letter here

CNSC Whistleblower Letter

CNSC “specialists” submitted an anonymous letter to the President of the CNSC (Michael Binder – appointed in 2008 – after its previous head, Linda Keen, was fired) alleging “Our primary concern is that CNSC commissioners do not receive sufficient information to make balanced judgments.” And, “because insufficient information is made available, other branches of government cannot make informed decisions. For example, the government of Ontario cannot make a good decision about financing the refurbishment of Darlington without knowing all the facts.” Going on to cite several specific cases where tribunal members rendered decisions based on incomplete information; for example, allowing Ontario Power Generation (OPG) & CNSC staff to use out-of-date seismic risk data in a Darlington hearing.

cnsc-anon-letter-to-binder

textbook-example [Quick read! Textbook case of what the whistleblowers were complaining of.]

Federal Commissioner of the Environment & Sustainable Development: Audit Results

QUOTE: “The audit found that the CNSC conducted site inspections, identified instances of non-compliance, and followed up with plant operators. However, the Commission could not show that it has a well-documented planning process for site inspections at nuclear power plants. It did not carry out a quarter of the inspections it had planned over a two-year period, and three quarters of the inspections it did conduct went ahead without an approved inspection guide, though the Commission’s own procedures requires one. In other words, the Commission could not demonstrate that it is conducting the right number and type of inspections to provide the coverage required to confirm that compliance is sufficient.”

Audit report here

Media Items about the audit commissioner-audit-media-oct-416

 

Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources: feeling the heat!

Critics accuse nuclear safety official of acting as industry cheerleader

 

& let’s not forget:

 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they say…

Risk of another Chernobyl or Fukushima type accident plausible, experts say

 

Let’s face it. Claims about nuclear “safety” have always been fraudulent.

(Very partial list of nuke accidents.)

 

One can only hope now

that there are some people in “authority”

who have common sense

integrity

& some, well, let’s just call it chutzpah, shall we?

 

Who are paying attention

 

And take appropriate action.

Soon.

 

** Quotes on the causes of the Fukushima accident

** Japan’s atomic disaster caused by “collusion”: panel report

** Nuclear “regulatory capture” – a global pattern

** Is Ontario ready for a nuclear disaster? (2011 article; still utterly relevant)

** Is Toronto ready for a radiation emergency?   (Jan. 5/16 Toronto Star article. Still as relevant as when it was written)

Provincial Growth Plan & Nuclear Plans on Collision Course

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* N.B. Press release below. Oshawa Express article Nuclear safety, intensification don’t mesh.
September 27, 2016 (Toronto)

Environmental groups asked the Minister of Municipal Affairs Bill Mauro today to respect international safety guidelines and protect public safety by restricting population growth around the ten aging nuclear reactors operating in the rapidly growing Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

“The government’s growth plans put public safety at risk. Encouraging population growth around nuclear reactors makes it difficult to evacuate people in the event of a Fukushima-level nuclear accident,” said Jacqueline Wilson, counsel with the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA).

CELA, Durham Nuclear Awareness (DNA) and Greenpeace say the government has ignored international safety standards, the Fukushima disaster, and repeated advice from experts over the past thirty years, which all say high populations densities will undermine the province’s ability to safely evacuate the public in the event of a nuclear accident.

Ontario encourages residential growth in downtown Pickering and Oshawa, which are both less than 10 kilometres from the aging Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations. The Fukushima accident caused a 20 km zone around the station to be evacuated.

The groups are concerned by the disconnect between the government’s growth policies and its recent decision to extend the lives of Pickering and Darlington reactors. Next month, Ontario Power Generation begins a decades-long $12 billion project to repair the Darlington reactors to keep them operating until mid-century.

“Ontario’s growth plans are on a collision course with its plans to keep the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations operating. Operating reactors in the GTA was a bad idea in the first place, but to then encourage growth near these reactors is sheer folly,” said Shawn-Patrick Stensil, a senior energy analyst with Greenpeace.

The groups formally asked the Ministry to review its current growth and land use policies, including the Places to Grow Act, under Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights. The province has three months to respond.

An article published by a group of European risk specialists in the journal Risk Analysis this month estimated another Fukushima-scale accident somewhere in the world within the next century.

Despite its responsibility for public safety, Ontario has yet to modernize its offsite nuclear emergency plans five years after Fukushima.

– 30 –

Information:

  • Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Senior Energy Analyst, Greenpeace, 416-884-7053, shawn.patrick.stensil@greenpeace.org
  • Jacqueline Wilson, counsel, CELA, 416-960-2284, ex 7213, jacqueline@cela.ca

Close Pickering!

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The Pickering nuclear generating station was built during the late 1960s.
It’s old.

Like any machine, any human-built installation, it’s deteriorating. It is not exactly in its finest hour, shall we just understatedly say.

The nuclear industry wants to keep it running.

Why?

Because they rake in very considerable profits from it on a daily basis.

Nuclear industry salaries are high. High-high-high. Through the roof, actually. Taxpayer-funded, here in Ontario, no less!

Why close it?

  • Too risky
  • Too costly
  • Too close to huge urban populations
  • Unnecessary
  • Jobs

Okay. So I’m stealing the bullet points in the Ontario Clean Air Alliance’s Close Pickering campaign brochure.

A huge (& growing) number of voices with plenty of knowledge & technical expertise behind them are calling for this aging plant to be shut down.

DNA couldn’t be more on board.

Check out some of the resources listed/linked in here, & decide for yourself!

Let’s stop risking the health & safety of the people of Ontario (not to mention the folks on the U.S. side of the border, downwinders in the event of an accident).

Resources

Recent Articles

YouTubes

Podcast

40 years of being a good neighbor? (nuke engineer/expert Arnie Gundersen)

 

Web Resources

 

p.s. gosh, I plum forgot to mention a teeny-tiny additional issue, applicable to ALL nuclear installations, everywhere.

The waste.

The tons & tons of dangerous, extremely toxic & unimaginably long-lived wastes. That will be around for longer than we mere humans can even (begin to) imagine. Yup.

& for which no solution has yet been found.

Maybe it’s time to stop making more of it. You think? (Plenty of useful info on waste here)

p.p.s. Oops. One more tiny “little” thing. Utterly inadequate nuclear emergency planning. This Web site has plenty of information on that topic. With links to plenty more.

No new nuclear emergency plans in Ontario post-Fukushima disaster. Revised plan now 3 years overdue … & nowhere in sight. Gee. What could possibly go wrong??

p.p.p.s. don’t forget to SIGN THE PETITION!

Chernobyl. 30 years. The ongoing disaster: tons of links!

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Many of us have vivid memories from the time when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred. April 26, 1986 (though of course notification about its occurrence was delayed – to its own people, & to the world).

30 years ago, now.

There remains a 30-kilometre “exclusion zone” around the site, though there are people who have chosen to return & continue living within that area & also, as I learned to my surprise recently, many people who now live outside the zone (many who were evacuated from the Pripyat area, to a new town), but who commute to the plant for their work.

Nuclear accidents. They just never really go away, do they??

Fallout is forever, both literally in terms of what goes into the air, water & soils – and also in terms of long-term health consequences.

Many children born today in the areas of highest fallout (Ukraine, Belarus & Russia) suffer significant health problems … way above & beyond thyroid cancer (the only health impact ever acknowledged by the nuclear industry).

Genetic damage comes down through the generations – as the people most affected by the Chernobyl & Fukushima nuclear disasters are learning firsthand.

What many Canadians don’t seem to realize is, this could happen here. This could be us.

A catastrophic nuclear accident could happen at one of Ontario’s nuclear plants, poisoning air, water (Lake Ontario, for example; then, what would we drink??) & the soils in which we grow our food.

I only wish it weren’t so.

Well.

EVENTS

There will be at least 5 events in the days ahead, in the Toronto area, being held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that began on April 26, 1986.

April 22nd Echoes of Chornobyl event  – Facebook page

Poster of 3 documentary showings: April 24th, 25th, 27th (please visit Facebook page here & scroll down; having IT issues attempting to attach the poster; apologies!?)

Half-Life in Fukushima – documentary showings May 2, 4 & 8 (Toronto)

Upcoming event in Washington, D.C. Lessons from Fukushima and Chernobyl: The Risks of “Normalizing” Radiation: A Special Event

Links to Recent News Items

15 things you don’t know about Chernobyl [Greenpeace]

30 Ways Chernobyl and Dying Nuke Industry Threaten Our Survival [Wasserman]

Blind Mice and bird brains: the silent spring of Chernobyl and Fukushima [The Ecologist. Timothy Mousseau’s work]

Chernobyl, and Cesium, at 30

Chernobyl’s children of hope [Greenpeace]

Chernobyl Disaster 30 years on: what do you remember? [the Guardian]

Chernobyl Disaster – 30 years later. Photos

Chernobyl – timeline of a nuclear nightmare

Chernobyl, 30 years on [from Truthout. Good info on medical/health stuff, IAEA / WHO duplicity]

Chernobyl is not safe for humans but animal populations are booming [Globe & Mail]

Chernobyl and Fukushima: Illuminating the invisible  [Greenpeace]

Children of the fall out: Belarus youngsters feel effects of Chernobyl nuclear disaster 30 years on [Daily Record]

Demystifying Nuclear Power: Chernobyl’s Forgotten People/Casualties of Atomic Breakdown [from Fairewinds]

Exiled Scientist: ‘Chernobyl has not finished, it has only just begun’

Mikhail Gorbachev 30 years after Chernobyl – time to phase out nuclear power

Radiation harm deniers? Pro-nuclear environmentalists and the Chernobyl death toll [The Ecologist]

Radioactive Chernobyl Forest Fires: a ticking time bomb [Greenpeace]

Ruined Chernobyl nuclear plant will remain a threat for 3,000 years

The next Chernobyl may be intentional

The Shadow of Chernobyl Looms Large 30 Years Later [Huff. Post, Greenpeace]

TORCH 2016 -Chernobyl Health Report

http://www.ianfairlie.org/news/30-years-after-chernobyl/

Ukraine Children Eat Food Tainted by Chornobyl Radiation  [Toronto Star; great quote from pediatrician Dr. Yuri Bandazhevsky]

‘We have a chance to show the truth’: into the heart of Chernobyl [The Guardian]

We’ve had enough of eating and breathing Chernobyl [Greenpeace]

Audio / Films / Video Recommended

Book VERY Highly Recommended!

Voices from Chernobyl – The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Svetlana Alexievich

On the DNA site

 

TAKE ACTION!

PETITION

No Nukes News

 

Quotes that spring to mind

“Chernobyl is a word we would all like to erase from our memory. But more than seven million of our fellow human beings do not have the luxury of forgetting. They are still suffering, every day, as a result of what happened…The exact number of victims can never be known.” – former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

“Uranium is the mineral of the apocalypse.” – Donald Weber

“What Dr. Gerstein shows is that reasonable people, who are not malicious, and whose intent is not to kill or injure other people, will nonetheless risk killing vast numbers of people. And they will do it predictably, with awareness … They knew the risks from the beginning, at every stage … the leaders chose, in the face of serious warnings, to consciously take chances that risked disaster … Men in power are willing to risk any number of human lives to avoid an otherwise certain loss to themselves, a sure reversal of their own prospects in the short run.” – Daniel Ellsberg, quoted in the Marc Gerstein book Flirting with Disaster – Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental  (also quoted by Arnie Gundersen in the Greenpeace report Lessons from Fukushima)

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” – Boxer Mike Tyson

** many more here

Three Mile Island. 37 Years. What have we learned??

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On March 28, 1979 there was a meltdown at the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. – though this meltdown was not actually understood and acknowledged by the industry until a few years later. The denial was very big & very stubborn. Risks to the local population were completely downplayed, denied & minimized.

Like so many people, I was pretty much asleep at the time of the TMI accident. I don’t mean literally asleep; I mean I was too busy with my own little life to really pay attention to what was going on in the big world around me (a perhaps somewhat typical citizen absorbed in my own work & personal life, at that time).

But “the authorities” lied to the public so completely about what was really happening in Pennsylvania that day that even if I’d been less self-absorbed, the accident would likely have barely registered on my (or most people’s) personal radar screen.

One thing the accident did contribute to was a chill on new nuclear plant construction (although in the documentary mentioned below, Arnie Gundersen explains that it was actually economics that did in new nukes. That is to say, they are just too damn costly).

Rather than building new reactors in North America, what we do now, mostly, is keep pushing geriatric ones well beyond what they were designed for. Like the ones at Pickering, hmmm? (Many relevant Pickering postings listed on this page). Darlington too, of course. Billions to “refurbish” (i.e., rebuild) them. Refurbishment: what you need to know.

Well. I could go on.

Let’s just say, here are some links I can recommend you check out on this 37th “anniversary” of the TMI meltdown.

Must-see?

The 2012 documentary ‘The Atomic States of America’

Really. You must watch!

It will inform, educate & surprise you … possibly even break your heart (learning about young children who contracted serious, deadly cancers on Long Island, due to tritium leaks/plumes that ended up in their families’ wells).

Interview clips with

  • Arnie Gundersen (Fairewinds)
  • Helen Caldicott (M.D. & decades’ long opponent of nuclear power)
  • David Lochbaum (Union of Concerned Scientists)
  • Alec Baldwin (well-known actor who lives on Long Island)
  • Writer Kelly McMasters (on whose book Welcome to Shirley – a memoir from an atomic town, the documentary is loosely based)
  • Eric Epstein, a stubborn, feisty & articulate activist who lives near TMI & has been educating the public for 31 years (his group: Three Mile Island Alert) — see Nuclear Hotseat link above!!
  • Randy Snell (Shirley resident, father of a daughter who got cancer very young & miraculously survived; he did a ton of work on Long Island to connect the dots & educate others) … & please note, it was not just children who got cancer at astronomical rates.
  • & others in another community deeply affected by tritium leaks from a nuke plant
  • Politicians who still say we need nukes.        Info about the waste issues involved.

++ much, much more.

Just watch!!!!

 ** At the end of the film, it’s mentioned that

  • It cost $1. billion to defuel Unit 2 at TMI in 1990
  • It’s estimated it will cost $836.9 million to decommission & decontaminate it
  • The reactor operated for 90 days.

Other Relevant Postings on this Blog

Well, most of them, really!

But maybe these ones in particular:

 

p.s. the 4 common elements to the 3 big nuke accidents? From the Fairewinds item mentioned above?

Four Lessons from 5 Meltdowns (18 minute video from April 2015 at the Uranium Symposium)

Key overarching one? Expect the unexpected

The 4: 1. Safety systems will fail 2. Emergency planning will fail 3. People will die 4. Risk is grossly underestimated

p.p.s. what have we learned?? Nothing, really. We just keep doing the same damn stupid stuff, over & over, year after year, decade after decade. We think we’re so darn smart, eh? But we are not. We are really, really not.

It’s shocking, really.

Fukushima: 5 years In. What Have We (Not) Learned?

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March 11, 2016 marks 5 years since the start of this neverending nuclear disaster that has shaken Japan and the world. There are many misconceptions about the nuclear disaster, its causes & its endless repercussions.

Some things, however, are not open for debate.

1. The nuclear disaster has been shown to be “man-made” – could & should have been prevented, in other words, but due to the dangerous collusion among government, nuclear industry & the far-flung “nuclear establishment,” became inevitable. (See posting here, ‘Fukushima: what really happened?’) Another, similar disaster could occur at any time, given the world’s hundreds of aging, decrepit reactors, and this global issue of collusion/regulatory capture.

2. Emergency planning & response were utterly inadequate to deal with the nuclear crisis in Japan. This too is a common feature of all nuclear jurisdictions. Even here in Ontario? Yes. Emergency planning is every bit as inadequate here.

3. Reports on the # of people evacuated vary, but around 160,000 Japanese citizens were evacuated from their homes. The evacuations were messy, ill-planned and poorly executed. Many people died during careless evacuations. Some people were sent into the very areas where the radioactive plume was heading, and some communities were left for weeks in areas with very high levels of contamination before evacuation orders were issued.

Nearly 100,000 people in Japan continue to live away from their homes.

The Prime Minister of Japan recently told his citizens all they need to do is put on a happy face. “The cure for radiation is a smile,” he said.

Shameful.

4. There is much common ground between the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (April 26, 1986) & those of the Fukushima accident. Many people are living in areas of high contamination. They are eating food that contains radioactive contaminants. They are becoming ill from both, with a wide variety of illnesses (cancer being far from the only one), & these populations are going to continue facing health risks & consequences for decades. In Japan, people are now being coerced into returning to areas of high contamination. (See Greenpeace reports linked in below.)

Nuclear messes can’t be cleaned up. The industry basically just moves waste around from one place to another. A recent New York Times article ‘Playing Pass the Parcel with Fukushima’ spells this out clearly. The waste in Japan is simply being schlepped around from one location to another. This is not a “solution”! It’s a way of making money for the nuclear clean-up industry (very profitable for them, of course), & it means simply re-contaminating new communities & endangering everyone within range of its transportation & its current (temporary) location (much of it in bags that will last a few years at most). Oh yes, let’s not forget that it is also being incinerated.

Nuclear fallout is forever. It’s long past time for us all to be 100% clear on this point by now, surely!

5.  We do not seem to be learning from these disasters (well, some jurisdictions are! A number of countries are now phasing out nuclear energy, Germany notable among them) … though the lessons are surely as plain as the noses on our faces.

We keep right on using this dangerous energy source that emits poisons into air & water even during routine operations, putting drinking water supplies at risk and creating endless quantities of nuclear wastes there is no solution for. Wastes that will remain toxic & dangerous for longer than human beings have walked on the Earth.

Preposterous.

Shame on us.

Information Links

Below are links to a large # of information sources about the situation in Japan.

These include articles, a news release, recent documentary, & a podcast with voices from Japan.

All of them of very recent vintage.

Events

are taking place all over the world to mark this anniversary.

Interesting & no doubt very partial list here.

Documentary Showings in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area)

The Japanese community in Toronto has shown two documentaries that focus on the impacts of the March 2011 earthquake & tsunami.

The documentary ‘A2-B-C’ (about health impacts to Japanese children from the nuclear disaster) is being shown in

  • Pickering, March 10th
  • Toronto, March 11th
  • Beaches community, March 13th

Following these film showings, the lessons we need to take from the Fukushima accident, for Ontarians, will be discussed by knowledgeable speakers.

(see previous post for more details)

 

Finally…

Never again?

Until the lessons from Chernobyl & Fukushima are truly absorbed & appropriately acted on, the best we can hope for is that the next (inevitable) nuclear accident will not take place in our own backyard.

Given the age of Ontario’s nuclear fleet & our government and the nuclear industry’s determination to keep it on life support?

Faint hope, I’m afraid.

Very faint, indeed.

 

** Many pithy quotations about inadequate nuclear emergency planning & the causes of the Fukushima disaster here

 

The Links

Recent conference: Berlin Congress: 30 years of Chernobyl, 5 of Fukushima

TORCH 2016 -Chernobyl Health Report

Analysis: The legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster-Carbon Brief

Court Orders One of Japan’s Two Operating Nuclear Plants to Shut Down

Crippled Fukushima Reactors Are Still a Danger, 5 Years after the Accident

Fairewinds Posts on 5th Anniversary (Arnie Gundersen on a Japanese tour)

(Against the Will of the People; final Fairewinds item from Japanese tour 2016)

Five Years Living with Fukushima – report from Physicians for Social Responsibility

FIVE YEARS AFTER: ‘Don’t abandon us,’ victims of Fukushima nuclear accident say

Five Years After Fukushima, ‘No End in Sight’ to Ecological Fallout

Five years on, cleanup of Fukushima’s reactors remains a distant goal

Five Years After the Fukushima Accidents: Thinking about Nuclear Power and Safety

Former Tepco bosses charged over Fukushima meltdown

FUKUSHIMA AT 5 CHORNOBYL AT 30-Kraft NEIS

Fukushima: A Nuclear Story (1-hour Passionate Eye documentary shown on CBC TV this week)

Fukushima nuclear disaster evacuees establish liaison group for lawsuit plaintiffs

Fukushima – Deep Trouble

Fukushima: Tokyo was on the brink of nuclear catastrophe, admits former prime minister

Fukushima Report: 10,000 Excess Cancers Expected in Japan as a Result of 2011 Reactor Meltdowns, Ongoing Radiation Exposure (from Physicians for Social Responsibility)

Fukushima Keeps Fighting Radioactive Tide 5 Years After Disaster

Fukushima ‘Decontamination Troops’ Often Exploited, Shunned

Fukushima: They Knew

Fukushima’s ground zero: No place for man or robot

Fukushima Five Years On: Not a Comedy of Errors, a Calamity of Terrors

Fukushima Five Years After: Health Researchers Turn Blind Eye to Casualties

Greenpeace items

How is Fukushima’s cleanup going five years after its meltdown? Not so well.

Japanese Citizens Celebrate Victory — Shut Down Nuclear Power Plants (YouTube)

Japan’s nuclear refugees face bleak return five years after Fukushima

No bliss in this ignorance: the great Fukushima nuclear cover-up

Nuclear Hotseat # 246 – Fukushima 5th anniversary – Voices from Japan (podcast)

‪No Nukes News – great compilation item!

On Forgetting Fukushima

Playing Pass the Parcel With Fukushima

Radioactive waste fire in Namie, Fukushima

The mothers who set up a radiation lab

The NRC Seven: Petitioning the NRC over Safety

When the Unthinkable is Deemed Impossible: Reflecting on Fukushima (by a former member of the NRC – U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

14 Groups Call on Canada’s PM to Fix Nuclear Law & Oversight

Five Years After Fukushima, U.S. Nuclear Safety Upgrades Lagging

MARY OLSON’s POSTS from Japan & note: they are must-reads!! These posts describe encounters with people affected by the accident, including evacuees. Ms. Olson makes this very personal. Please read them!

 

Fukushima: 5 years. 3 Documentary Showings

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It’s hard to believe, but true: the 5th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster is fast approaching.
DNA is cooperating with 3 other groups to show an award-winning documentary about the health implications for Japanese children in the wake of the triple meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi, and to discuss Fukushima’s lessons for Ontario.

The film will be shown in three locations, on three different dates. Details below.

** Note: I’ve seen the documentary. It’s informative, disturbing, moving and powerful. I can’t promise that it won’t elicit some tears. To hear young children discuss radioactive playground structures, and teen-agers predict their own eventual cancers; well, these are sad and sobering things.

 

Lessons from Fukushima for Ontario – 5 years after the worst nuclear disaster

Film Screening + Panel Discussion at 3 locations in Toronto & Pickering

Dates: March 10th, 11th & 13th

Film: ‘A2-B-C,’ directed by Ian Thomas Ash, 2013

** Speakers will discuss the risks of Ontario’s nuclear reactors, emergency plans and plans to rebuild Ontario’s aging nuclear fleet.

Speakers:

  • Angela Bischoff, Ontario Clean Air Alliance (OCAA)
  • Erica Stahl, Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA)
  • Shawn-Patrick Stensil, Greenpeace Canada

About ‘A2-B-C’:

Since the nuclear disasters in Fukushima, Japan, in March 2011, local childhood thyroid cancer cases have risen to 20-50 times above normal. Citing a lack of transparency in the official medical testing of their children and the ineffectiveness of the decontamination of their homes and schools, the children’s mothers take radiation monitoring into their own hands.

The film has won 12 awards internationally.

71 min. English subtitles. www.a2documentary.com

——

Event Schedule: 

Thur. March 10, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Pickering Main Library, One the Esplanade

Donations welcome!

https://www.facebook.com/events/252463191752578/

——

Fri. March 11, 7 – 9 p.m.

Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham, Toronto (Bathurst subway station)

Suggested Donation: $5-10

https://www.facebook.com/events/806452062832978/

——

Sun. March 13, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.

Beach United Church, 140 Wineva Ave.

Donations welcome!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1696146407291800/

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These events are sponsored by

 

  • Many quotations about the causes of the Fukushima nuclear disaster here
  • ‘Fukushima: what really happened?’ posting here

A2-B-C Poster w. Quotes

Darlington Hearing: ROBUST public response!

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Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has asked the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) for a 13-year licence to continue operations at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station (DNGS). During this period of time, they intend to “refurbish” (i.e., rebuild) the site’s four reactors at a cost (to taxpayers) of between $8 & 14 billion dollars. Previous posts on this site provide information about the refurbishment – information that most people probably don’t know, as well as a posting with many reasons why a lot of us think there is no need whatsoever for CNSC to give OPG an unprecedented 13-year licence (or even 10).

This posting will provide information about the hearing itself, which took place over a 4-day period, November 2-5, in Courtice – within seeing distance, almost, of the DNGS itself.

You can access video of the hearing here. The Webcast will only be available on the CNSC Web site for three months, to the best of my understanding.

On this page you’ll find links to the written transcripts from the hearing.

For convenience, here are links to each of the days’ transcripts.

There was definitely what could accurately be called an extraordinarily robust response to this hearing. A total of 283 people wrote in, & approximately 65 individuals/groups/corporations presented in person. This is a very significant response, and for OPG & the CNSC to have had to devote four full days to the hearing is a statement about the considerable amount of public engagement & concern that exists regarding this license request.

Topics of concern from citizen groups/individuals included but were not limited to:

  • Accident risks
  • Cost issues
  • Cyber-security
  • Emergency planning deficiencies
  • Environmental impacts
  • Food security concerns (in the event of an accident)
  • Reactor safety: involving some highly technical discussion
  • Seismic issues
  • Transparency & trust (more to the point, the lack thereof)
  • The need to move to renewable energy sources
  • Waste: the vast quantities of new nuclear wastes to be produced by this project
  • Worker exposures / health issues & impacts

I might add that the education level of many of the intervenors is impressive. I’m not sure how many possess Ph.D.’s … but it is quite a few. Citizen intervenors also included at least one medical doctor, several lawyers, & several engineers. This is not an unruly, uneducated bunch of rowdies we are talking about here. Just saying.

As well…

Quite a number of nuclear worker groups, chambers of commerce & corporations also presented at the hearing; not surprisingly, remarks from these quarters were inevitably very positive in tone. Extremely questionable to many of us is this so-called “quasi-judicial” tribunal’s willingness to hear from corporations that stand to profit by bringing in millions of dollars from this massive reactor rebuild project. Such individuals/corporations seem surely less-than-capable of neutral, unbiased or deeply questioning views on the risks of the project or the safety of the technologies involved.

Such, it must sadly be said, is simply the nature of CNSC hearings. This is not the first time I’ve witnessed this extremely questionable practice – it’s become a routine aspect of the proceedings. It is, quite simply, just the way the CNSC does business. CNSC may lay claim to being Canadians’ guardian of “nuclear safety” – but seasoned CNSC watchers find it seems to be far more of a nuclear industry booster than a true guardian of safety. It takes attendance at only one hearing for this to become abundantly clear.

As with every nuclear hearing I’ve attended over the past nine years, I was impressed over & over again at the level of learning, expertise (& also courage) demonstrated by the citizen “intervenors,” as we’re called. Many have considerable technical knowledge & awareness regarding the ins & outs of nuclear technology & its associated risks, clearly the result of many hundreds (if not thousands) of hours, in some cases over many decades.

By contrast, the nuclear boosters often sound more than a little foolish. It’s clear their knowledge is neither deep nor wide, in contrast to that of the citizens with their vast array of legitimate, wide-ranging concerns. It’s also clear that almost no one in the room (the very large “sanctuary” of the Hope Fellowship church in Courtice) – always including at least 20 or so OPG staff to one side, and at least 20 or so CNSC staff to the other, and the members of the tribunal sitting up front (at a long table on an elevated platform; six tribunal members, accompanied by the Commission Secretary & a CNSC lawyer, hold court at this elevated “head table) – really finds what the boosters say terribly compelling. You can sense a lack of real engagement among the audience members (even the paid, mostly quite highly paid, contingent among them, when these boosters are saying their piece). It’s palpable. Again, you have to be there to experience this.

By contrast, when any of the citizen intervenors with their array of numerous, truly sobering & substantial concerns is speaking (for the 10-minute time period they are allotted, no matter their level of expertise), one can sense a very keen interest in what is being said. Truth-telling is a compelling thing; there’s just no getting around it.

I ought to state right here that a person cannot really do justice to a CNSC hearing using words & descriptions; I know because I’ve been trying & failing to do just this for years now. You have to experience a hearing first-hand to grasp how they really work. It’s quite a show, and that’s the truth. In fact, there is an air to it of drama & performance. A great many untruths are spoken with deliberate, sober, straight faces. It can be quite challenging to listen to, a good deal of the time, when one is aware that lies are being spoken boldly left and right.

What I’m going to do next is provide links to a selection of outstanding “interventions” from the hearing, by category.

I’ll give links to the individual or group’s initial written submission & any “supplementary” submissions, as well as to page links for their remarks in the written transcript.

If you’ve never before paid attention to what is aired at a CNSC hearing, I guarantee you’ll be amazed at the quality of the submissions.

By all means, read the entire transcript, &/or watch the whole Webcast!

SUBMISSIONS

By category, some notable submissions:

Accident Risks, Seismic Risks (etc.)

 Cyber-security issues

Emergency Planning Deficiencies (etc.)

** This topic was referenced again & again & again … & then again. In fact, CNSC tribunal member Ms. Rumina Velshi observed at the hearing (see pg. 66 on November 4th) that more than 80% of the submissions received referenced concerns about inadequate emergency planning.

** You really must take a quick read of the CELA supplementary document linked in above! It spells out findings about inadequate emergency responses in the post-Fukushima accident period – in the assessment of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), the global nuclear “regulator” – which it appears Canada’s “regulator” & government agencies at all levels are studiously ignoring!

Environmental Impacts (etc.)

  • Ole Hendrickson (tritium) Nov.4th (p. 289-308)
  • Lake Ontario Waterkeeper Lake Ontario Waterkeeper-supplem Nov.3rd (p. 99-148)

Food Security (etc.)

  • Suhail Barot Nov.3rd (p. 281-292)
  • Belyakov  Belyakov-Supplementary   Nov.3rd (p. 194-206) ** Dr. Belyakov (who was born in Ukraine) also spoke of real-life, long-term consequences of the Chernobyl accident
  • NFU  (National Farmers Union) Waterloo Wellington Local Nov.2nd (p. 263-275). ** This presenter also referenced nuclear waste, nuclear waste transportation issues & real-life experiences in Germany, post-Chernobyl accident

Health / Worker Exposure & Safety Issues (etc.)

  • CAPE-written (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment) CAPE-supplem Nov.5th (p. 65-77)
  • CCNR (Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility) Nov.3rd (p. 86-113)
  • Frank Greening   Frank Greening-Suppl (written; his letters discussed Nov.3rd p. 315-346) ** note: Greening is an ex-nuclear industry engineer
  • PHCHCC (Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee), Nov.5th (p. 88-102)
  • Anna Tilman  Anna Tilman-suppl   Nov.4th (p. 145-176)

Limitations of the (alleged) Severe Accident Study

** DNA posting about the (supposed) severe accident study here

Reactor Safety & Technical Issues

  • CCNR Nov.3rd (p. 86-113)
  • Michel Duguay Nov.5th (p. 131-146)
  • Greenpeace  Greenpeace-Suppl Greenpeace-supplem 2  Nov.3rd (p. 5-69)
  • Frank Greening  Frank Greening-Suppl (written; his letters discussed Nov.3rd p. 315-346)
  • Sunil Nijhawan  Sunil Nijhawan-Revised  Sunil Nijhawan-Revised2 Nov.3rd(p. 231-280) ** an extraordinary, I would call it unique, exchange!
  • Anna Tilman  Anna Tilman-suppl  Nov.4th (p. 145-176)

Waste / Waste Transportation (etc.)

  • Beyond Nuclear Nov.4th (p. 339-361)
  • NFU (National Farmers Union – Waterloo Wellington Local) Nov.2nd (p. 263-275)
  • Northwatch  Northwatch-supplem   Nov.5th (p. 10-64)
  • Sharen Skelly Nov.2nd (p. 236-244)
  • Anna Tilman  Anna Tilman-suppl  Nov.4th (p. 145-176)

Please understand: there were many, many additional thoughtful, intelligent, incisive, moving & compelling presentations during the hearing. I simply cannot include nor take the time to re-read them all. The most I can do here is touch on some especially memorable ones, ones that cover a wide range of topics of deep concern. I do encourage you to look over them all!

You can request a CD of the submission pdf’s that includes both original written & supplementary submissions, from CNSC staff, &/or hard copies. Do that by writing to info@cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca

To Conclude…

I am not in the slightest convinced that the public concerns raised by all these articulate citizens of Durham Region, Toronto, elsewhere in Ontario (also two from Quebec, one from New Brunswick & one from Washington, D.C.) were really heard – truly listened to & digested – nor do I really expect (based on a now-rather-large number of CNSC hearing experiences) them to be appropriately acted upon.

On the last day of the hearing, what became clear when CNSC staff & OPG made their final comments was that most of the incredibly large number of serious concerns raised by citizen interventors seem to have gone in the proverbial one ear, & right out the other. CNSC staff & OPG staff are quite practiced at dismissing, minimizing & denying safety issues of many (or all) kinds, & in many cases, patronizing even the most intelligent intervenors.

Then … it’s right back to the business of creating nuclear waste … & picking up the generous (very generous indeed!) salaries that this work provides.

Btw, it’s decently possible the word “robust” was used a record number of times in this hearing. One CNSC staffer used it 3 times in a two-sentence span! (see pg. 350 of the Nov. 4th transcript). We seasoned CNSC watchers do know from this word’s exceedingly frequent usage that it is definitely something of a favourite among nuclear industry personnel, both here & in the U.S.

Something we know for sure is very very robust indeed, that the industry seems mostly loath to talk about &/or to skip over with considerable cavalierness (if this is a word), is nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is indeed wildly robust, robust beyond any of our wildest imaginings, even – and there is yet, 70 years into the great nuclear experiment, no solution for it.

None, none, none – not one (unless you consider leaking storage sites here, there & everywhere on our planet, & burning, yes, incinerating nuclear wastes, viable solutions). Consider checking out this item for information about 6000 nuclear waste sites in the U.S.A. Very sobering. & note: that’s only in the U.S.! The total number world-wide must be simply staggering. Truly mind-boggling.

So very much more could be said about nuclear waste. Dear me. But not here, & not now. (Although I can & do recommend you take a gander at this item to get a sense of how much NEW waste this proposed refurbishment project will create.)

Something that is not robust?

Nuclear emergency planning in Ontario. Definitely definitely definitely NOT robust. As many many many citizen & NGO intervenors referenced at this recent hearing.

 

A few memorable/relevant quotations:

“The liar’s punishment is not in the least that he is not believed but that he cannot believe anyone else.” – George Bernard Shaw Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 – 1950)

“The pay [for the professional apologists] has to be relatively high, because the job commonly requires the sacrifice of intellectual honesty.” – John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph.D. (1918-2007) in “Irrevy” – An Irreverent, Illustrated View of Nuclear Power <pg. 55>

“There has not existed the slightest shred of meaningful evidence that the entire intervention process in nuclear energy is anything more than the most callous of charades and frauds.” – John W. Gofman, M.D., Ph.D. (1918-2007) in “Irrevy” – An Irreverent, Illustrated View of Nuclear Power <pg. 125>

 “Perhaps you have noticed that every time a radioactive release is known to have occurred, officials announce, ‘but the amount released poses no danger to public health.’ There must, by now, be 100,000 such announcements. How many ‘small’ releases can we have and still have the total ‘small?’” – Dr. John Gofman, M.D., Ph.D. in “Irrevy” – An Irreverent, Illustrated View of Nuclear Power <pg. 101>

** fascinating article about John Gofman here

 

 

Durham Region asks Province to open up & to evaluate expanding nuclear evacuation zones

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NEWS RELEASE

Durham Region asks Province to open up and to evaluate expanding nuclear evacuation zones

Whitby, November 8, 2015: Durham Nuclear Awareness (DNA) applauds Durham Regional Council for calling on the province to be more transparent in reviewing nuclear emergency plans, and to consider expanding the current 10 km nuclear evacuation zones around the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations.

“We’ve been very frustrated by the provincial government’s secrecy and foot-dragging since Fukushima. We applaud Durham Region for reminding the province that it needs to consult openly with the communities most affected in the event of an accident at Darlington or Pickering,” said Whitby resident and DNA member Gail Cockburn.

Durham Regional Council passed a motion on November 4, 2014 asking the province to “provide all non-confidential data and studies used in considering changes to Ontario’s off- site nuclear emergency plans.” It also asks the province “to consider the feasibility of expanding the 10 km primary zone.”

During last week’s Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) hearings on Ontario Power Generation (OPG)’s application to rebuild the Darlington nuclear station, a CNSC Commissioner told Ontario government representatives that 80% of submissions from members of the public voiced concerns about the inadequacy of provincial emergency plans. CNSC staff also said they’d hold their own consultations on off-site nuclear emergency plans if the province refused to act.

Last month, potassium iodide (KI) pills were sent to everyone within the provincially- determined 10 km zone of the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations. The CNSC imposed this new safety requirement on OPG in 2014 in response to public concern and to the province’s failure to upgrade its nuclear emergency plans.

“The CNSC, Durham Region and DNA all agree. It’s been almost five years since the Fukushima disaster began, and an upgrade to Ontario’s off-site emergency plans is long overdue. Kathleen Wynne’s government needs to publicly and meaningfully consult the public on improving off-site nuclear emergency plans,” said DNA Coordinator Janet McNeill.

The motion was originally put forward in June by Councillor Jennifer O’Connell, who has since been elected Member of Parliament for Pickering, and seconded by Ajax’s Colleen Jordan. The motion was sent to committee for review before being passed by Council last week.

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