SF Japan Consulate Protest-Stop The Restarting of NUKES In Japan And Defend The Families

12/11 SF Japan Consulate Protest-Stop The Restarting of NUKES In Japan And Defend The Families Of Fukushima
Monday December 11, 2017 3:00 PM
San Francisco Japanese Consulate
275 Battery St./California St.
San Francisco

Despite the continuing radiation from the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe the Japanese Abe government continues to restart other nuclear plants in Japan. They are also preparing for a major earthquake that might kill over 200,000 people. The restarting of Japanese plants is a threat to the world. Another major earthquake in Japan could not only destroy Japan but also contaminate the entire world with nuclear radiation. No Nukes Action Committee has been organizing since the Fukushima meltdowns to defend the people of Fukushima and Japan and demanding that the Japanese Abe government stop the continued work to push nuclear power in Japan. The government is denying the growing thyroid cancer epidemic dangers and are pressuring the people of Japan to remain silent and accept their contamination. The Japanese Abe government has also said to the Olympics committee and the world that the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been overcome and Fukushima has been “decontaminated” This is a lie and propaganda. They have also said that you can “overcome” radiation. At the same time they have passed a secrecy law and conspiracy law that will be used against journalists and whistleblowers who are exposing the continued dangers at Fukushima.
They are also seeking to militarize and prepare for a new war with the introduction of nuclear weapons in Japan and in Okinawa where the government continues to build US military bases in preparation for a war against North Korea and China. They want to eliminate Article 9 of the constitution to allow offensive war and the transformation of Japan into another military power in Asia that would add to the dangers of war in Asia and the world.
The militarization of Asia is the expansion of nuclear plants and nuclear weapons is a threat to the people of Fukushima, Japa and the world and we must speak out to stop these dangers and defend the people of Fukushima.


Speak Out and Rally initiated by
No Nukes Action Committee
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/


Report On Continuing Dangers At Fukushima By Sachihiko Fuse of Fukushima Collaborative Clinic
https://youtu.be/j4l-KKT1GbE
Sachihiko Fuse, Director of the Fukushima Collaborative Clinic on November 4, 2017 gave a report on the continued dangers and growing cancers of the children and people in Fukushima. He is a director of the Fukushima Collaborative Clinic which is an independent clinic to support the community and workers who are being contaminated. This presentation was made in Chiba, Japan.
For more information:
https://www.clinic-fukushima.jp/english/
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org


Report of Sachihiko Fuse, Hospital Director at The Fukushima Collaborative Clinic In Tokyo

I would like to thank all those who have gathered here at the November 4th Workers International Solidarity Rally. My name is Sachihiko Fuse, and I am the hospital director at the Fukushima Collaborative Clinic. I provide clinical care in Fukushima prefecture, the location of the calamitous Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which started on March 11th, 2011.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors. It is the worst nuclear catastrophe in history exceeding Chernobyl and Three Mile accidents. Abolish nuclear power plants immediately!—this is the duty for Japanese working class, and at the same time the common struggle of all workers in the whole world.

I would like to introduce our clinic and explain the factors leading up to its establishment.

After the nuclear disaster, the central government, the Fukushima prefectural government and authoritarian medical industry have been leading a denialist campaign: “there is no need to be concerned about radiation”. Under such pressure, residents of the area were concerned about the negative health effects deriving from nuclear contamination, and were refused care at medical facilities all around the prefecture with the reasoning that “there is no need to be concerned about radiation”. Almost no medical facility was available for medical consultation about health problem from radioactive contamination. That was when residents of Fukushima who were concerned about nuclear contamination-related health issues, as well as volunteer doctors from around the countries began to solicit donations nationally and from around the world to establish a medical institution that operated with the understanding that “internal and low levels of radiation exposure were dangerous”. We received assistance not only in Japan, but also from Korea, Germany, America and the wider world and were able to open our clinic on December 1st, 2012. In that sense, this clinic is a crystallization of international solidarity by workers globally. I would like to first thank the workers of the world for their support.

Our clinic provides care under the principles of “refuge, recuperation and care”.

Fukushima is a radioactively contaminated area and its residents should evacuate. That’s why the first principle is “refuge”.

However, there are a lot of people who can’t evacuate from Fukushima. For those people, recuperating in an area without the effects of radiation can reduce the health risks from radiation. That’s why the second principle is “recuperation”.

Even now, many residents of the prefecture live in radioactively contaminated zones. Our clinic provides care to protect the health of those who have no choice but to live here. That’s why the third principle is “care”.

Next, I will discuss problems that are affecting Fukushima.

The biggest problem is the outbreak of childhood thyroid cancer.

Currently, even in official prefecture figures, 194 people are confirmed or suspected of having contracted thyroid cancer, and 154 have been verified to have it via surgery. The UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation), Fukushima prefecture and the Japanese government have stated that it “would be unlikely that these cases are due to the effects of radiation”. However, the incidence of childhood thyroid cancer is usually 1 to 2 people in 1 million. In Fukushima prefecture, we have an incidence of 2 in 3,000 people. One can only conclude that these are the same effects of radiation the world saw after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. On top of it, the Japanese government has openly started to reduce and dismantle the health survey of childhood thyroid cancer. This is the international cover up radiation damage. We can never allow such a crime.

The second problem is the state’s policy of forced radioactive exposure and the abandonment of residents under the pretense of reconstruction.

The state has been returning residents to areas around Fukushima Daiichi, where an accident could again occur at any moment, highly contaminated regions that have an annual radiation measurement of up to 20 mSv (milli-sievert). They have cut the housing reimbursement allowance as of March of this year for those who have fled outside the prefecture. TEPCO (Toden) will also eliminate psychological compensation allowances for residents in shelter as of March. They are trying to drive these residents into economic distress, force them to return to their land and expose them to radiation. These are the abandonment policies of the state under the name of “reconstruction” and “return”. Fukushima Collaborative Clinic is fighting together with residents who are struggling not to return.

It’s not just childhood thyroid cancer; other negative health effects are occurring, and problems like: radioactive water is being pumped out into the sea, plant workers and other disaster relief workers being forced into radioactive exposure, and the state attempting to indefinitely preserve radioactively contaminated materials in earthwork “intermediary storage facilities”.

Next, I will report on our 5 years of activity after our establishment as a clinic.

First is our provision of ultrasonic examination for thyroid cancer. Due to the outbreak of thyroid cancer owing to radiation exposure, we have provided these examinations for 3,000 children and adults.

Second is our activity to protect the health of residents that have evacuated. We have provided health consultations for residents living in temporary housing who have evacuated to these facilities in the wake of the tsunami and subsequent radiation contamination.

Third is our activity to protect the health of plant and decontamination workers. Plant workers are working even now to clean up after the nuclear plant disaster. There are also many workers performing radiation decontamination within the prefecture. Their work necessarily exposes them to radiation, but without their efforts, the livelihoods of the people of Fukushima could not be secured. Protecting their health is also an important part of our work at the clinic.

Fourth is our lecturing activity around the country. These lectures are important activity to abolish all nuclear plants and prevent a second Fukushima disaster.
We have also been working in solidarity with doctors fighting against nuclear power around the world since the outbreak of the nuclear catastrophe. Since 2015, we have had participating by anti-nuclear doctors from Korea, and messages of solidarity from the German branch of IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War). We were invited and I participated in a Korean anti-nuclear international symposium held in the South Korean National Assembly building on January 18th of this year.

Fifth is our support for evacuees both in and outside of Fukushima prefecture. Not only in the prefecture, we have supported refugees by collecting signatures nationally against the policy of forced exposure to radiation and the return of residents. We have collected over 40,000 at this point. This petition work is a sign of rebellion from Fukushima.

Why does the state insist that “there was no accident at Fukushima”. The Abe administration has paved the way for War Laws, the Secret Protection Act and Conspiracy Laws.
Ｔｈｅ nation’s rage also continues to explode at the many payoff scandals. Faced with such political crisis, Shinzo Abe called a snap Lower House election to destroy the war renouncing current constitution and change Japan into a military state capable of waging war.
War in the modern era is nuclear war. To have nuclear weapons you need nuclear plants—nuclear technology. That’s why the state is on the offense with “there was no accident at Fukushima”.
The Fukushima Collaborative Clinic is raising its voice and reporting on health problems arising from radiation exposure, and demanding answers on how many decades, how many hundreds of years it will take to clean up from this accident, as well as placing the responsibility where it lies: the state, and TEPCO.
This clinic alone cannot unseat the Abe administration. We need worker unions like the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions here in Japan. The November 5th worker rally is the starting point for an authentic revival of fighting labor unions amid the collapse of the Rengo federation.
Let’s learn from the Korean people’s uprising, which defeated Park Geun-hye and create a labor union that fights with the Fukushima rebellion (Shut down all nuclear plants now!).
Let’s stop the Tokyo Olympics and defeat Abe who will alter the constitution and bring war to Korea.
Let’s abolish war and nuclear power from the earth with the power of workers internationally. Let’s build a world for us workers with the power of workers


Disposal of low-level radioactive waste from Fukushima crisis begins
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/11/17/national/disposal-low-level-radioactive-waste-fukushima-crisis-begins/#.Wg_D4hTD2-Q
KYODO
NOV 17, 2017
FUKUSHIMA – Disposal began Friday of low-level radioactive waste generated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster, more than six years after the crisis was triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.
A disposal site in Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture, accepted the first shipment of the waste, which contains radioactive cesium ranging from 8,000 to 100,000 becquerels per kilogram, and includes rice straw, sludge and ash from waste incineration.
The Environment Ministry is in charge of the country’s nuclear waste disposal, which totaled 200,000 tons from 11 prefectures as of the end of September. The majority of the waste, 170,000 tons, originates from the prefecture hosting the crippled nuclear power plant.
“I would like to ask the central government to move this project forward while taking adequate safety steps in mind,” a Tomioka official said. “Building mutual trust with local residents is also important.”
Under the ministry’s policy, each prefecture’s waste is to be disposed of. However, Fukushima is the only prefecture where disposal has started, whereas other prefectures have met with opposition from local residents.
In Fukushima, it will take six years to complete moving the stored waste to the disposal site, the ministry said.
The government “will continue giving first priority to securing safety and properly carry out the disposal with our best efforts to win local confidence,” Environment Minister Masaharu Nakagawa said at a news conference.
The government proposed in December 2013 that Fukushima Prefecture dispose of the waste at the then-privately owned site. The request was accepted by the prefectural government two years later.
To help alleviate local concerns over the disposal, the government nationalized the site and reinforced it to prevent the entry of rainwater.

Japan Kobe Steel data scandal to delay restart of four nuclear reactors
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/11/30/national/kobe-steel-data-scandal-delay-restart-four-nuclear-reactors/#.WiCFzBTD2-Q
KYODO
NOV 30, 2017


OSAKA – The planned restart of four reactors in central and southwestern Japan will be delayed as nuclear operators need time to confirm whether peripheral equipment used parts affected by Kobe Steel’s data fabrication, the operators said Thursday.
The reactors affected are the Nos. 3 and 4 units at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi plant in Fukui Prefecture and the Nos. 3 and 4 units at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture. All four reactors were originally set to go online early next year.
According to the Nuclear Regulation Authority, which received reports from utilities after the data fabrication came to light, Kobe Steel Ltd. products were used in the four reactors. But the utilities said at the time they were not products affected by the data fabrication.
Kansai Electric Power has so far ruled out any safety concerns, and on Monday Shigeki Iwane, the firm’s president, said he didn’t expect the issue would cause a delay.
But the company is now considering pushing back the schedule for restarting the Oi reactors in order to inspect their peripheral equipment, company officials said.
Just days earlier, Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa gave final local consent for the reactivation of the two reactors, which have cleared a set of new safety requirements introduced after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Fukui also hosts Kansai Electric Power’s Takahama plant, where two reactors have already resumed operation. There are lingering concerns over whether the utility and residents are fully prepared for the risk of a scenario involving simultaneous disasters at the two nearby complexes.
The Fukuoka-based Kyushu Electric said Thursday it will postpone the reactivation of the Genkai reactors to March and May, respectively. The firm has found that its reactor containment vessels used reinforcing bars supplied by Kobe Steel. But the products were made at factories that were not involved in data fabrication, according to the utility.
The reactivation of the four reactors at the Oi and Genkai plants would bring the number of reactors operating in Japan to nearly 10, depending on whether other currently idled reactors go online as well.
Japan currently has about 40 commercial reactors, but progress to bring them back online has been slow amid lingering safety concerns.
Kobe Steel has admitted to falsifying data for its products and specifications — including aluminum, copper, steel powder, liquid crystal display materials and special steel products — which were supplied to 525 companies, from major automakers to bullet train operators.