MURATA-SAN: AMERICAN WEST COAST THREATENED!
.
Tokyo, September 16, 2014
.
Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
.
Please allow me to send you an urgent warning from Japan.
.
I have written the attached article for an American paper. [See Below.]
.
Japan knows more than any other country the real and present dangers of nuclear reactors. It is a serious security problem that the mainstream of the world continue to promote nuclear power generation even after Fukushima, totally ignoring its lessons. Fukushima is a global security issue.
.
Even after the 3/11 disaster, Japan has not revised the basic nuclear law, intended to promote nuclear power generation as a national policy!
.
Her governability is now questioned. The fate of the world will be decided by electric companies, if no drastic change takes place.
.
Japan faces serious shortage of labor throughout the country.
.
The number of daily necessary workers at the site of Fukushima Daiichi is increasing. It was 2950 last year. It will surpass 6000 in September.
.
The Tokyo Olympic Games will seriously affect the difficult procurement of workers at the site. It already looms as a fantasy. Increasing members of the JOC despair of it. An honorable retreat from it for the sake of coping with Fukushima crisis wholeheartedly now seems inevitable.
.
The problem of protecting the security of the residents of the [American] West Coast will soon awaken the world to the uncontrollable and spreading consequences of the Accident. We cannot deny that Fukushima, if badly managed, could become the beginning of the ultimate global catastrophe.
.
Please allow me to count on your understanding and support.
.
With highest and warmest regards,
Mitsuhei Murata
Former Ambassador to Switzerland
Executive Director, Japan Society for Global System and Ethics
.
.
AMBASSADOR MURATA’S 9.11 ARTICLE
.
September 11, 2014
An urgent warning from Japan
.
The unstoppable consequences of Fukushima menacing the West Coast of the United States.
.
Mitsuhei Murata
Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland
Executive Director, Japan Society for Global System and Ethics
.
The worsening situation at Fukushima Daiichi has some experts fearing the worst; collapse of the 4 reactor buildings due to the softening of the soil caused by excessive underground water. It could be the beginning of a catastrophe for Japan and the world. Experts say within weeks a radioactive plume could reach the West Coast of the United States.
.
The total volume of cesium 137 of the Fukushima Daiichi is equivalent to 5000 Hiroshima Atomic Bombs. The release of their total radiation could bring about the nuclear winter that would fatally affect the United States for hundreds of years. The dangers are real and incomparably terrifying than many are led to realize by Tokyo Electric Company (Tepco) and the Japanese Government.
.
No solution in sight
.
The problem of contaminated water at the Fukushima Daiichi has no solution in sight. The situation is seriously worsening. Decommissioning the plant will be impossible until Tepco surmounts the contaminated water crisis.
.
Reliable experts estimate that the daily inflow of contaminated water into the sea amounts to 1000 tons, of which 600 is groundwater. In addition to this, frequent torrential rain falls wash away into the sea radiogenic materials heavily accumulated at the site. In this connection, the documents of Tepco reveal that, between August of last year and May of this year, the amount of strontium 90 and cesium 137 possibly attained about two trillion becquerels! This is ten times the release management level admitted before the accident. It is equivalent to ten thousand days’ release of radiation into the atmosphere from the site.
.
A year ago, when Tepco removed the debris and rubble of the unit 3, the wind scattered radiogenic materials all around. According to Tepco, the amount of radiation amounted to 400 million becquerels. Some experts suspect the real figure is 10 times higher. The rage of those residents who have been radiated naturally remains difficult to calm down.
.
To make the matter worse, global warming seems to have brought about climate change in Japan. Local downpours of rain causing landslides or mudslides are now so frequent. The latest typhoon has given rise to nearly 80 victims in Hiroshima. The heavy rainfall washes away radioactive materials of numerous hot spots at the site into the sea. Their volume is presumed enormous, but so far incalculable. The contamination of the sea thus aggravated is not taken up by the press. It cannot but eventually end up affecting the health of the residents of the West Coast of the United States.
.
Protection of the health of the residents of the West Coast
.
Some experts now estimate that the wave of radiation from Fukushima will be 10-times bigger than all of the radiation from the entire world’s nuclear tests throughout history combined. There are reports stating that dangerous radiation levels have been detected in snows found in Texas, Colorado and Missouri, warning that the US, indeed, is going to face the severest consequences of the ongoing historic, and seemingly unstoppable, nuclear disaster.
.
Some reports also point out that large amounts of fish, seaweeds, and everything in the ocean has already been polluted, and that these products are the main danger for mankind as they can end up being eaten by people on a massive scale.
.
What is stated above certainly needs serious verification.
.
The protection of the health of the residents of the US West Coast will become a central political issue. It cannot but awaken the whole world to the uncontrollable and spreading consequences of the Fukushima Accident.
.
The impending task of the Obama Administration
.
Japan is laboring under the consequences of the Accident never experienced by humanity. Three and half years after the 3.11 disaster, it has been shown that a severe nuclear accident cannot be brought under control by a single state. Japan is not in possession of the governability and the capacity needed to cope with the impending crisis.
.
The Japanese government is bent on restarting nuclear reactors and exporting nuclear technology without clarifying the causes of the accident.
.
The majority of the Japanese severely criticize this move as immoral and irresponsible.
.
The lapse of three and half years has shown that Japan alone cannot control the situation. The necessity of mobilizing human wisdom on the widest possible scope is self-evident, but no substantial step has been taken so far.
.
The hosting of the Tokyo Olympic Games leads us to think that Japan is averting the crucial duty of making maximum efforts to cope with the Accident. With this criticism spreading widely, Japan’s withdrawal from it is now considered inevitable. It will put an end to the ongoing attempt to conceal the realities of Fukushima. Its impact would be global.
.
The Obama Administration has now the impending task to protect the lives of the American people and to cope with the global security issue emanating from Fukushima crisis.
