Imagine if a plant that produces a nuclear weapon’s pit, in which the chain reaction occurs, were rocked by an earthquake?
New Nuclear Project Distracts From Existing Safety (Read: Seismic) Issues
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Environment
Impact of Fukushima Continues to Inch up to Chernobyl Levels
Like Chernobyl, the economic effects of Fukushima will ricochet around the world.
World Bank Horning Its Way Into UN Fund for Helping Poor Nations Deal With Climate Change
More than 90 international environment, development, human rights, and anti-debt organizations from around the world want the World Bank excluded from Green Climate Fund for helping poor nations address climate change.
Postcard from…Tohoku
Within a week of the massive March 11 earthquake off the coast of Tohoku, Peace Boat’s advanced relief squad had navigated the region’s broken roads and set up base in the devastated city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi prefecture. From here they’ve been coordinating rotating teams of between 50 and 100 Japanese and international volunteers to assist the local community – primarily by cooking hot meals, distributing supplies, and clearing the tons of mud swept in by the 10-foot tsunami.
Gambling in Japan
The great kabuki actor Mitsugoro Bando VIII was a fan of fugu, or blowfish. Fugu is a rather bland, unremarkable fish except for one thing: its internal organs, particularly the liver, are highly toxic. Japanese chefs have to acquire a special certificate to prove that they know how to remove all traces of toxin before preparing the dish. Nevertheless, a couple of people die every year from eating it, which gives the fish an exotic reputation. Diners enjoy the slight tingle that fugu sushi imparts to the tongue and lips. Bando, however, wasn’t satisfied with this slight tingle. A daredevil eater, he relished bowls of soup made from fugu liver and in this way built up a certain resistance to the toxin. But on January 16, 1975, Bando ate not only one bowl of this liver soup for dinner but also the three bowls that his friend wisely declined. That night he suffered respiratory failure and died.
Little Silver Riding Hoods
Following the terrible earthquakes and tsunami in northeastern Japan on March 11, schoolchildren as far away as Tokyo have been going to school wearing pointy silver hats to protect them from potential fires and debris during ensuing aftershocks. For some, too, the shiny hoods function as ineffectual radiation shields, a poignant sign of Japan’s deepening unease over the ongoing meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Fukushima: Where Do Aliens Store Their Spent Fuel Rods?
Since Nevada has balked at storing nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain, spent fuel rods are piling up in U.S. nuclear plants.
Thanks to Fukushima Light Shed on U.S. Nuclear Facility Located on a Volcano
Like the Fukushima reactors, U.S. nuclear labs lie on faults.
Is There a Cause and Effect Between Fukushima and Attacking Libya?
As Japan’s nuclear crisis deepened, Gaddafi revealed that he would cancel oil contracts with Europe and sign up instead the BRIC countries.
Fukushima: Which Is It? “Certain level of success” or “crisis still not resolved”?
Would the United States have handled Fukushima better?