NH #197: Post-Fukushima W. Coast Birth Defects w/Dr. Janette Sherman

INTERVIEWS:

Dr. Janette Sherman of Radiation and Public Health Project  on her recent study (with epidemiologist Joseph Mangano) showing an increase in congenital birth defects in west coast infants in the eight months after Fukushima. Full report available at: JanetteSherman.com or Radiation.org

Kimberly Roberson of Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network on Bequerel Awareness Day and why anti-nuclear activists need to help stop the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

SPECIAL APRIL FOOLS BLOOPER REEL:

Outtakes edited from Libbe HaLevy, guests, Munchkin the anti-nuclear dog, and other guest canines.  Microphone pointing in the wrong direction, mispronunciations, and more uhs, uhms and stutters than you can possibly imagine.  Enjoy!

NUMNUTZ OF THE WEEK:

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe-baby has his own “Define what ‘is’ is” moment: his admission that he decided to lie to the International Olympic Committee about the situation at Fukushima so he could land the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo.  He saw it as his job.  I’m sure Hitler did, too.

Japanese PM Shinzo "Pinnochio" Abe-Baby waxes poetic on how the leaks at Fukushima are "under control."
Japanese PM Shinzo “Pinnochio” Abe-Baby waxes poetic on how the leaks at Fukushima are “under control.”

PLUS:

  • China Syndrome – Melted fuel at Fukushima Unit 1 may be completely out of containment, two stories deep and up to 50 feet across.  No robot’s going to “scoop” this stuff out any time soon.  Estimated wait time for Fukushima clean-up: 200 years or more.
  • US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) model shows Fukushima radioactive gas near Tokyo skyrocketed to 10-billion times normal levels in the immediate aftermath of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
  • Plutonium at 1-million Bequerels per cubic meter detected in Pacific ocean off Fukushima, labeled “the largest influx of artifiial radioactivity into the sea ever occurring over a short period of time.”
  • Pope Francis warns Japanese bishops against the dangers of arrogance, comparing Fukushima to the biblical Tower of Babel. 
  • New Joban Expressway opens, runs within 3-3/4 miles (6 km) or Fukushima nuclear disaster site.  No word if they used “eco cement,” which is made with the ash left over from incineration of decontamination debris.
  • US President Barack Obama issues executive order calling for government to use “clean energy sources” – and includes small modular nuclear reactors in the mix.  Oy.
  • Kitty Litter takes the blame for the radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP site) near Carlsbad, NM.  (But really, the cat litter was responsible for the 55 gallon drum rupturing and releasing radiation, but WIPP’s contractor, Waste Control Specialists, is responsible for the HEPA filters in the ventilation stacks not turning on for over 30 minutes, allowing the release of Plutonium and Americium into the atmosphere, exposing 22 workers who have tested positive for internal contamination.
  • Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station forced reactor shutdown during the January 27 blizzard makes the Union of Concerned Scientists’ annual “near miss” list.
  • Banned Japanese food products from Fukushima discovered re-labeled, sold in Taiwan.