Posted on 06/11/2012 12:14:11 PM PDT by ransomnote
Full TItle: 1,000 US High School Students to Do Volunteer Cleanup, Tree-Planting in #Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Ibaraki and Observe Japan's Recovery
Following the footsteps of the students from Middle Tennessee State University, 1,000 high school students from across the United States will be volunteering in the disaster affected Tohoku, in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and Ibaraki Prefectures. Activities will include clean-up and planting trees, according to the Japanese government foundation who invited them.
From Japan Times (6/10/2012):
1,000 U.S. high school students to start volunteer work in tsunami zones Kyodo
Around 1,000 high school students and youths from the United States will visit the Tohoku region in three groups from Sunday to carry out volunteer work in four disaster-hit prefectures at the invitation of the Japan Foundation.
Each group will stay in the country for a fortnight and engage in various exchanges with locals in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures, according to the foundation, which specializes in cultural exchanges.
Participants in the program will come from 40 schools across the United States, including areas affected by natural disasters in the past, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The last group will arrive in late July.
Some of the students are from the former schools of two young American teachers killed by the March 2011 tsunami — Taylor Anderson from Virginia and Montgomery Dickson from Alaska — who were teaching English at schools in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, and Rikuzentakata in Iwate. Those students will visit both cities, which were devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
All those taking part will also visit Kobe to witness the city's recovery from the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
The above Japan Times article doesn't say much about the students' activities beyond "cultural exchanges", but the Foundation's press release does.
(Excerpt) Read more at ex-skf.blogspot.com ...
"Does nobody understand that ALL of the area they are planning to visit would qualify as a Radiological Controlled Area in the US and that persons under the age of 18 are not permitted by US regulation to be in a Radiological Controlled Area."
Think of the carbon-footprint of all that international trans-pacific air travel./s
This is a bull-shit peacenik feel-good project put on by occutards who I am sure are vegan tree-huggers.
Middle Tennessee State University. They ain’t called institutions of lower learning for nothing.
This is a bull-shit peacenik feel-good project put on by occutards who I am sure are vegan tree-huggers.
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Let ‘em go and get ‘radiated’.
There are few people more pro-nuclear power than me but this is a very very bad idea. Perhaps in another 5 years.
I wonder if a thousand Japanese high school kids will volunteer to clean up our West Coast when the debris tsunami hits our shores?
With 1,000 kids, they can run 3 split-shifts - two at night since the area glows like high noon - and get it done fast. Of course, they’ll all be sterilized/cancer-prone from such high rads exposure. What idiot(s) thought this stunt up? Aren’t parents even questioning this lunacy?
Nuthin’ worse than something that makes people feel good...
I see a lot of lawsuits being filed against these high schools once parents realize that their kid has been glowing since coming home from Japan. This is a whole wagon load of bull****.
This is the stupidist stunt I’ve heard about in years.
Just imaging the study some medical group can do on them.
Yep, lawsuits, my first thought. What are they thinking? “Gee, we’ll plant trees and do green things and life will be good.”
Future “X-men” that will save the planet one day.
I know someone who is being recruited to go over there to work on the damaged nuke plant. Japan is throwing a boatload of money at him and his wife and kids are invited to come with him. He’s not the only one they’re trying to hire claiming it’s perfectly safe. If it’s so safe, then why are they having to go outside Japan with mountains of $$$$ to intice workers to go there? I’m guessing those Japanese workers don’t want to be anywhere around that bulging wall in #4.
Hey, that's less future liberals and tree huggers.
Cool, we needed more radioactive trees and cancer patients.
"OH no... they'll all die!"
Ha, Fukushima is a big ski resort area and business was almost as good as usual last year.
Works for me. Can we send more than the first 1,000? Fill-up the cruise ships and send continuously, until we get ‘em all ‘fixed’.
Bet if they asked these same people to try to clean up New Orleans after Katrina, they wouldn’t have had many takers.
The science community’s radioactive waste land is the pro nuke shills ‘winter wonderland’.
Sneering at hysteria doesn’t work well when hysteria isn’t present. THose individuals who are knowledgeable about Chernobyl and the ongoing medical crisis there, and the BEIR reports (state of the art US research) believe that is unhealthy to go to Fukushima and those who support nuclear power without ever acknowledging or accepting responsibility for any of the damage it has done sneer at it.
Bet if they asked these same people to try to clean up New Orleans after Katrina, they wouldn’t have had many takers.
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Your comment really caught me, dfwgator.
There is a huge disparity, isn’t there? Members of my church in California volunteered to help cleanup in New Orleans and all of them came back astounded that so little progress had been made.
Maybe it’s money - a nearly free hotel room/food and free airfare? I don’t know what the hotel fee will be but it must be supplemented by PR right? And all that ‘free’ produce and meat from Fukushima out of gratitude to those who are there to help them? I don’t know but I suspsect heavy subsidizing.
So, the question becomes, if those students were offered free transportation, nice housing, free food - would they go to post Katrina regions today? Well, there’s still foreign travel and its appeal.
It’s not ‘sneering’ it’s healthy humor.
Come on, someone claiming those tens of thousands of skiers were “pro nuke shills “ is funny. Admit it.
Likewise claiming all the area is a “radioactive waste land “
And that’s just in the first sentence of your reply!
Can’t unconvince people who believe this stuff, but it is good for a laugh.
Because of legal individual exposure limits, including monthly, quarterly, and annual limits, they need lots of workers to cycle in and out of service. There is such an immense amount of work to do, that if you only have a limited number of workers, the amount of time the cleanup is going to take is only that much longer. Also, more workers will mean a lower average exposure to each worker. The work has to get done, so importing workers is perfectly legitimate here.
Actually a great opportunity for nuclear workers.
Was going to post a link demonstrating that, but that site has been down the past few hours.
Actually the pro nuke shills convinced skiers it was safe and a great idea, the skiers themselves are not the shills. In fact, pro nuke shills avoid the area and certainly don’t live in the contaminated zones.
Radioactive waste land it quite accurate - those pesky people living in contaminated regions of Chernobyl find that human health deteriorates until supplied with non-contaminated food! Imagine that! No one has figured out how to clean the soil around Chernobyl either; it’s just not feasible. And well, some of those isotopes last thousands of years.
Oh I think your sense of humor is sick but I wouldn’t bother trying to change your mind about that. It does strike me as indecent after watching videos from the Chernobyl region and reading the international health studies - but human suffering doesn’t matter to pro nuke shills. In fact, pro nukers pretend that Chernobyl doesn’t exist and all concerns regarding health are merely urban myths...oh and they stay clear of the area whenever politics doesn’t make them show up.
When workers go into a radiation area, they carry at least 2 types of personal dosimetry. One kind can be read by the individual while being exposed, one has to be read by a machine after the exposure. In addition, the areas around the site are routinely surveyed and radiation levels are posted in the area and briefed before personnel enter the area for work. This aids in determining an individual's exposure by counting up the amount of time spent in a given radiation area. By reviewing and comparing all three methods, a pretty accurate exposure level can be determined.
Radiation monitors can not be used unless they are in current calibration--calibrations are done periodically depending on the type of detector, and standard procedure is to check a detector's calibration before using it. Some detectors even come equipped with their own radioactive source, so calibration can be checked every time the instrument is used. BTW, rad monitors don't estimate anything...they show actual rad levels, as long as they are correctly calibrated.
TEPCO and the Japanese government couldn't lie about rad levels if they wanted to--too much independent verification there for them to get away with it. There may be some discrepancies, but I give them the benefit of the doubt.
The people working at Fukushima are all very well trained in all aspects of radiological controls. They are smart, competent, and capable. They, above all, know the risks they are taking. Same goes for anyone who comes in from outside Japan to help in the recovery and cleanup. I would have absolutely no problem going there to work, if I was not otherwise busy (my bad knee wouldn't help, either).
BTW...a few zoomies now and again are good for the soul...};o)
Each and every individual will have to make that decision for themselves, but they have to at least realize that the Japanese government and Tepco have admitted lying. So there is a track record of lies. And they also need to realize that any contamination they receive will be eventually brought back to their home countries.
And there is also a history of problems with communications within Tepco and Japan. Just recently the government run inquiry into the Fukushima crisis determined that Tepco did not ask to abandon Plant #1 and eventually possibly Plant #2.
Apparently the Japanese words and phrase used can be perceived as either:
- temporarily partially abandoning Fukushima #1 due to high radiaition levels and then returning later.
- possibly meaning abandon Fukushima #1 and possibly #2 permanently but in a slow staged process.
That is what you have to deal with over there.
rottendog:
“Who hides from Chernobyl?”
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Specifically, you hide from Chernobyl, rottndog.
You link to a publication that, according to its banner heading represents ‘people and organizations of the global nuclear profession.’ Those people have done a fantastic job of lying about their responsibility and the true medical aftermath of their industry.
Now, those reading this who are not nuclear shills may be interested in a report created by doctors who continue to deal with the medical disaster ongoing in the Chernobyl region right now (http://www.strahlentelex.de/Yablokov%20Chernobyl%20book.pdf) or perhaps view the videos available detailing the grinding illness and damage to DNA, or perhaps read books like “The Voices of Chernobyl” to get an honest look at the situation. There are accounts of regions in the Ukraine where ‘most children are ill’ and yes - early on there were international reports of astonishing increases in childhood thyroid cancers and leukemias. Or, perhaps peruse the BEIR VII report created by scientists in the US. It’s all there. You only need to deny it if you are a) hoping to continue a lucrative career in nuclear power and b)indifferent to human suffering caused by your industry.
Meanwhile, nuke shills say it all turned out JUST FINE.
If you are living in Japan, you are eating Japanese food. Therefore, you are ingesting higher then normal amounts of radioactive particles. You will be slowly shedding some of those internally contaminated particles over the years. There has also been complaints of workers getting internal contamination while working at the plant and they could not determine the source. We know that normal Japanese citizens are getting internal contamination because it has been metered in their defecation’s.
Um, no. NO contamination will leave the site. Workers, wearing anti-contamination clothing (anti-Cs as they are known) are ‘frisked’ with radiation detectors after they remove the anti-Cs, and BEFORE they leave the area...all radiation areas are controlled, and there is a control point watch that checks everyone in and out. Any contamination will be detected, and anyone ‘contaminated’ has to be decontaminated before they are allowed to leave.
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These are not ‘workers’ and they will be ‘cleaning up’ areas that Japan has declared ‘safe’ even those personal dosimeters purchased and used by citizens indicate it is not safe. Contaminated produce has been declared ‘safe’ as has contaminated meat from the area. It is illegal for Japanese doctors to examine ‘civilians’ from the area without permission from the government. Internal contamination is not being monitored in civilians nor are these civilians being decontaminated. The nuke industry is simply pretending that they are living in a contaminated zone but are not being harmed or ingesting or breathing it. The US will probably scan these kids on return but since our nuke industry is in collusion with their nuke industry and both are supported by national gov., we won’t hear about it. Oh they may be declared ‘safe’ upon return so later, if some should become ill from their exposure or that cohort have above average levels of DNA damage (children) they can ‘deny’ it but there is no real attempt to detect or decontaminate.
‘Higher than normal’ meaning what? You can ingest higher than normal levels of anything of a bad nature, and still do so safely.
Have you ever had Ben & Jerry’s ice cream?
WHO was harnessed early by the UN. They were forbidden from releasing information without the express approval of the UN Nuclear agencies. WHO is trying to regain its autonomy and ‘right’ to speak freely but it has a ways to go.
Try to understand that countries with nuclear power defend their nuclear power. Hans Blix, head UN nuke expert, is on video tape explaining that he only accepted and reported 1/10 of the radiation reported by Gorbachev’s nuke experts. Gorby is on record responding in shock to that decision. Yes, the UN and WHO are more than willing to lie and distort. That’s why the link I provided points to a document by physicians who are pushing back against the GLOBAL denial of Chernobyl. That is the banner under the website you linked - ‘representing GLOBAL nuclear organizations and professionals’.
The people working at Fukushima are all very well trained in all aspects of radiological controls
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Well actually Tepco has been criticized for recruiting untrained personell and failing to give them dosimeters and when asked, being unable to provide the names of the workers.
Early photos of Fukushima showed ‘workers’ wearing respirators improperly (over the TVEC suit instead of straps under it) in a manner dangerous considering where they were going. How about the guy caught smoking on the TEPCO dock next to the reactors? He had removed his respirator and was smoking a cigarette. No, too many are untrained and some are simply unaccounted for.
You think with the left wing enviro-wacko domination of the UN that they wouldn't do anything and everything to get rid of nukes if they could? Have you heard the UN say anything about Chernobyl lately? They CAN'T, because the science and the studies undeniably show that the predictions of the effects of Chernobyl were highly exaggerated.
Nuclear workers do not ingest or breathe in contamination...if there is airborne particulate contamination (something that is regularly monitored), anybody in the area will be wearing some form of respiratory protection. And, the anti-Cs I was referring to protect against contamination on the outside of the body.
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I guess you missed the reports that came out a few months after the disaster. Nuke workers VISITING the area (no gear) said to be safe for citizens were scanned for radiation and had surprisingly high amounts of contaminants in their lungs. It was believed that they inhaled it while visiting the area (friends, family) during their own personal time off.
It’s hard to criticize what was going on at Fukushima after all hell broke loose. It was absolute chaos...no one really had a complete grasp of what was actually going on and what the extent of the damage to the reactor plants was. There absolutely was problems initially. And, in emergency situations exposure limits can be waived. Not absolving them of mistakes, but taking the perspective of the magnitude of the entire event, it’s understandable that some rules weren’t followed.
I’m talking about NOW. Everything I have discussed about procedures and radiological controls is in place and being practiced NOW.
Yeah, UN, Black Helicopters, and all that stuff. All a big conspiracy.
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Oh no, no black helicopters. WHen the government gets to decide what makes it into the ‘official record’, not much subterfuge is necessary. The US under reported the radiation released by NV above ground testing and years later, tried to stop the researcher who exposed them for having done so. Those ‘downwinders’ who post on FR can attest to the fact that they personally know people who were harmed by NV above ground testing. It’s easy - just prevent any veterinarian from testifying about downed flocks of sheep, herds of cattle while allowing only gov. approved veterinarians to testify in Downwinder trials and ‘voila’! Problem solved. The problem is that no insurer was willing or financially able to insure Nuke power because of the damage even one event would cause. SO, the US insures nuke power. And the US has no intention of paying out one dime on that ‘insurance’ policy. It doesn’t take black helicopters - it takes a corrupt, incompetent industry underwritten by the nation’s government whether it’s in Japan, Russia, or the US or...
sounds like a very goofy idea and I would never let my kid go......
Nuke workers VISITING the area (no gear) said to be safe for citizens were scanned for radiation and had surprisingly high amounts of contaminants in their lungs.
Well, duh. They were outside of a controlled area, wearing no protection. They didn’t get the exposure from working at Fukushima. I’m talking about nuke workers working at a nuke plant.
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Well duh...citizens LIVE there on the assurances that it is safe. Nuke workers were contaminated by brief visits. But wait..citizens just don’t matter to nuke shills.
“Thousands of Nuclear plant workers suffer internal radiation exposure after visiting Fukushima”
“People are deemed to have had internal exposure if whole-body counters detect over 1,500 cpm of radiation from them. If more than 100,000 cpm of radiation is detected from body surfaces, decontamination is said to be necessary. “
“Nobuaki Terasaka, head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told the House of Representatives Budget Committee on May 16 that there were a total of 4,956 cases of workers suffering from internal exposure to radiation at nuclear power plants in the country excluding the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, and 4,766 of them involved workers originally from Fukushima who had visited the prefecture after the nuclear crisis. “
“In 1,193 cases, workers had internal exposure to radiation of more than 10,000 cpm. “
Two things about nuke testing:
First, if you’ll remember, we were in the Cold War in a rapid nuclear weapons buildup race. The government was (understandably so) very reluctant to reveal info that could be used by the Soviets, and so they kept as much info classified as they could.
Second, in the early days, they did not have a complete grasp of the effects of nuclear detonations. They did not have a complete grasp of the effects of radiation and contamination from nuclear fallout. That was the reason for the testing. That’s the reason testing went underground when they started to understand what the effects of open air testing were.
US Nuclear industry corrupt and incompetent...my my. Six decades of reactor plant operations...over a hundred reactor plants...one accident which did not result in exposure of the general public to fission products and which had fewer fatalities than the back seat of Ted Kennedy’s car....corrupt and incompetent. Yup.
My my...what a pathetic paint job
but..that’s all the nuke industry has is more white wash...
That is false. They knew precisely what was happening. TEPCO, the Japanese Government and even the US NRC. We know that now just from the FOIA requests.
BTW - An independent investigation determined that Tepco did indeed ask to abandon Fukushima #1 plant permanently.
Hard to say what is higher then normal after the government lifts is maximum safe yearly intake levels. The nuke industry regulators in Japan have had to lift many maximum safe levels. And that is understandable considering three whole reactors melted down and at least two explosions occurred. I can give links, but there are literally dozens of them documenting very high levels in Japanese food that are multiples greater then the new higher safe limits.
you have no proof that anyone is going to be just fine. The results of radiologic exposure take time to show themselves and at that point - shills like you demand proof that illness resulted from exposure. There’s always a slimy way out.
TEPCO and Japanese government declared regions SAFE for people -that’s why otherwise well informed nuke workers were there. They suppressed SPEEDI data because it exposed their incompetent management of nuclear power so civilians, including children were exposed for days. They were told to shelter indoors and mayors were specifically instructed to withhold potassium iodide pills (don’t want ‘panic’ now do we - so let them be exposed without protection we promise them when the plants are built!). Only one mayor refused to follow orders and distributed potassium iodide.
They are suppressing health relevant information and services RIGHT NOW and they will continue to do so. They are preventing children from bringing school lunches from home and shipping Fukushima produce and contaminated tea all over Japan and denying medical knowledge of its affects RIGHT NOW. They are denying because countries like the US and Russia have shown them that it’s possible to deny, bat down, and outrun responsibility for decades. They are denying the existance of ‘black dust’ and asking children to clean playgrounds and pools known to be contaminated with radioactive waste RIGHT NOW.
The internet is making it hard on your kind. IMagine if we only had US newspapers to consult.
A citizen simply got in his car and drove around measuring contamination outside the exclusion zone and recorded his data, including the fact that young policemen were stationed at contaminated areas:
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2012/06/professor-yukio-hayakawa-takes.html
Note the disbelief of his supervisor when the citizen explains the radiation findings RIGHT NOW. Yes - complete disbelief. Excellent! For TEPCO and Japanese government that is - they roll over the population demanding their trust and mocking all concern and it is working. People like you ridicule anything but the party line and when some in this population show obvious signs of radiation damage - deny it! Because it has worked in the past. Just don’t expect respect from the populace, m’kay? Individually and as a group, your industry has credibility in the negative numbers....somewhere in the basement where....the Japanese are guessing the molten cores of Fukushima power plants lie.
Potassium iodide pills only work to prevent damage to the thyroid...nothing else. Thyroid cancer, which can occur after exposure, is very treatable and almost never fatal.
There is quite a bit of data about radiation exposure and it's effects on the human body. Most people don't understand radiation and its' biological affects, and therefore fear it. Understandable, especially for people like yourself. Again I go back to Chernobyl—the most epidemiologically studied event in medical history. Oh...that's right...there's a world wide conspiracy to keep Chernobyl hush hush.
Did you take your Potassium iodide??? Maybe you should get a Geiger counter and check to see if your tin foil hat is contaminated.
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