The Tokyo Olympics

Well, this has been and continues to be a very surreal news year. Today it was announced that Tokyo has been given the 2020 Olympic Games (here), despite the ongoing freeway pile-up that is Fukushima. With the recent problems at Fukushima, the Japanese government has pledged half a billion dollars to help with the clean-up. The Tokyo Olympics, on the otherhand, will cost at least eight billion dollars… have I already mentioned that this is a very surreal news year?

The Tokyo Olympics stuff is reminiscent of the May Day parade held in Kiev, five days after Chernobyl No.4 blew its top (Chernobyl is 60 miles north of Kiev). Officials in the city knew the gravity of the situation, and knew the air was laden with huge doses of radiation, yet they didn’t inform the public of this and instead encouraged the parade to go ahead in an attempt to make things appear ‘normal’.

May Day in Kiev in 1986 was bright and sunny and a large number of people took part in the parade, including more than 10,000 children (children are more susceptible to radiation). There’s a study somewhere that shows how many of them are now dead or suffering from terrible illnesses.

Chernobyl was contained relatively quickly, because the then Soviet government threw massive resources at it. Fukushima, on the otherhand, is totally out of control with no end in sight. Both Chernobyl and Fukushima were rated a 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), which is the highest rating that any nuclear accident can be given. Following all the lies from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the Japanese government, Fukushima was downgraded to a 1 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. With the recent massive leaks of highly radioactive water it’s been upped to a 3 on the INES (which is a serious nuclear incident), and shortly afterwards it was announced that Tokyo has been awarded the 2020 Olympics. No, I’m not making this up.

The Tokyo Olympics (quite ironic really, since 20-20 can also refer to vision) are seven years away. Chernobyl is now almost 30 years in the past, yet it continues to be lethal. At Fukushima there’s not one, but three reactors that have melted down, plus there’s thousands of tons of spent fuel rods on site (because they don’t know what else to do with them); but I won’t get into all that now. Instead here’s Arnie Gundersen talking last year about radiation levels in Tokyo. You have to remember that Fukushima is not contained, and continues to pour radiation into the environment day after day after day, and unless a big international effort is thrown at it this will continue for decades.



This next talk is a bit technical, yet it’s well worth a listen if you want some understanding of the effects of fallout from a nuclear accident. The talk is given by Steven Starr, who’s a member of Physicians for Social reponsibility, and he’s speaking at the symposium: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident, held earlier this year…

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