NH #511: Radiation Monitoring in USA? Let’s go! – Rachel Clark

Libbe HaLevy 

00:00:01

Nuclear radiation. We’re conditioned to accept government and industry assurances that the radiation levels we face are safe. No matter how much common sense would point to the need for extreme skepticism of their dismissive statements. When we express concern. But in Japan, after Fukushima, local citizens took the matters into their own hands with amazingly positive results. And as one genuine expert tells us, it all began because

Richael Clark

00:00:33

The government of Japan publicly announced the level of a soil contamination, but they never touched the soil. The number that they published was calculated a month from the air pollution level. So when the mom and pops found out about this bag, they got so scared. They have a children’s who plays in the sandbox. They have a private vegetable gardens and so forth. They came to the conclusion, well, the government doesn’t do it for us. We have to do it.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:01:06

And so they did, and they continue to, well, when you hear about citizen activists in Japan, who took radiation, measuring into their own hands after Fukushima and learned that this kind of program is necessary here in the United States, as well as all the other countries around the world, you get a sense of empowerment that yes, there is a way we can fight back against the governments and the nuclear. Industry’s false assurances about nuclear and call out the truth about that awful seat that we all share.

Announcer

00:01:42

Claire hot seat. What are those people thinking? Nuclear hot seat. What have those boys been braking clear, hot. See the Ms. Sinking our time to act is shrinking, but nuclear Hotsy, it’s the bomb.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:02:12

Welcome to nuclear hot seat, the weekly international news magazine, keeping you up to date on all things, nuclear from a different perspective. My name is Leebee Halevi. I’m the producer and host as well as a survivor of the nuclear accident at three mile island from just one mile away. So I know what can happen when those nuclear so-called experts get it wrong this week and exciting interview. We talk with professional translator, Rachel Clark, who has worked directly with the Mino data site, the group that organized scientifically vetted research and testing for radiation levels in Japan, the group subsequently published a book and booklet in Japanese and in English that revealed Fukushima’s radiation spread throughout that country. Racial is here in the United States and given her recent experience, which we will discuss. She has a vision for a similar program to test for radiation levels throughout the United States.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:03:16

And she also provides a first step for interested parties to take. We will also have nuclear news from around the world numnuts of the week for outstanding nuclear bone headedness, and more honest nuclear information than we will ever hear from the state of Florida, because, Hey, it’s Florida. All of this coming up in just a few moments today is Tuesday, April 6th, 2021. And here is this week’s nuclear news from a different perspective. First, I have a correction to issue as to last week show number 510 in it. I interviewed Turkish journalist Pienaar Demmer, Sean covering two ongoing projects in Turkey, one on the Mediterranean to be run by Russians and the other one in the black sea, a project that is currently without a company. I mistakenly assigned both of these to Russia and apologized for the mistake. Now here’s the news. Starting off with the story out of Canada, where former prime minister’s Zsa criterion was revealed to be part of a secretive project to store nuclear waste in Labrador before the pandemic lockdown forced its cancellation, a meeting was planned in April, 2020, between former prime minister who has ties to the liberal government and prime minister, Justin Trudeau, former us government nuclear advisor, Tim Frasier, Montreal business, executive Elbert and influential figures in Japan’s nuclear and public relations industry that would be dent to this was revealed in emails drafted in 2019 and 2020 that were obtained by radio Canada’s on Queet and investigative program.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:05:08

The plan they were hiding was to bury nuclear waste from foreign countries in Labrador. Now that the cat is out of that bag, we will bring you more information as it appears in the United States in Florida, a state of emergency has been declared after a significant bleak at a large pond at the old Piney point, phosphate mine threatened to burst a system that stores water polluted with radioactive materials. More than 300 homes were ordered evacuated. And the highway closed off near the large reservoir, only 30 miles south of Tampa. The pond at the old Piney point, phosphate mine sits in a stack of FASFA gypsum, a waste product from manufacturing fertilizer that contains naturally occurring radium and uranium, and the stack can also release large concentrations of radioactive radon gas. The pending ecological disaster and resulting contamination has caused George Cruz and Manatee county commissioner to state.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:06:09

We determined that it was no longer safe to be anywhere near Piney point a February incident in the nuclear reactor at the national Institute of standards and technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland potentially admitted more radioactive material than initially thought. While officials were quick to announce that the radioactivity levels were quote unquote safe, the incident was significant enough to require at least 10 employees to undergo decontamination and force a rare evacuation of workers from the nuclear reactor facility on February 3rd, a fuel element and the reactor overheated beyond the limit of 450 degrees Celsius and suffered damage and alarm on the site warned of the radiation levels during a restart of the reactor from regularly scheduled maintenance. So the problem happened, quote, unquote, maintenance had occurred. The state of New Mexico has sued the U S nuclear regulatory commission over concerns that the federal agency hasn’t done enough to vet plans for a multi-billion dollar facility by Holtec to store spent nuclear fuel in the state, arguing that the project would endanger residents, the environment and the economy New Mexico has accused the commission of colluding with Holtec in quote rubber stamping the proposal.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:07:32

The state argues that almost every interested party that has filed a challenge has been denied standing and an opportunity to meaningfully participate. The complaint says the NRCS mandate does not include policy setting or altering the public debate and emphatically cheerleading nuclear industry projects. Yet it is doing both to the detriment of New Mexico. One of the unaddressed ignored and suppressed problems with this numnuts plan to ship nuclear waste from reactors around the country to New Mexico. Is that of transport. A point made clear on March 31st, when a truck carrying radioactive uranium compounds crashed, crashed on the in Cumberland county, North Carolina, only 63 miles from Raleigh two of the 4,000 gallon containers of uranium hexafluoride on the truck fell off as the truck overturned, uranium hexafluoride can be used to make fuel for nuclear power plants. Drivers were evacuated from the area. The NRC has okayed plans to send radioactive waste to USC colleges, Idaho waste storage facility, about 60 miles south of Boise, B 5,200 cubic yards of radioactive sludge and debris would fill about 430 dump trucks and be transported to Idaho by truck and car. Remember the previous story connect the dots. And now

Libbe HaLevy 

00:09:12

Extinction rebellion describes itself as an international non-violent civil disobedience activist movement. That takes the view that the public deserves to know what credible scientists believed is the worst case scenario for the development of the climate and ecological crisis. Over the coming decades, the group has always been staunchly anti nuclear. So imagine the surprise and consternation, when a former spokeswoman for the group, a Ms. Zion lights is now touting nuclear as quote, the only option and quote a logical next step in fighting the climate crisis. She is also evoking her former position to shore up her current pro nuclear one, which of course is evoking glee. As it gives aid and comfort to those who promote all things nuclear, she has even taken a role at a campaign group that supports the building of the Sizewell sea nuclear power station in Suffolk, less than 100 miles from London, which is staunchly opposed by more than 100 Suffolk businesses, community groups, such as stop Sizewell sea and the campaign against nuclear expansion. It’s even gotten support from celebrities, such as actor, bill Nighy and broadcaster, bill Turnbull, opposition keeps growing. Don’t know why you did this Ms. Darkness, who got to you, what did they say? What did they offer? And how dare you used your warped thinking to twist your previous anti-nuclear stance into being the nuclear industry’s favorite UK publicity lapdog. And that is why Zion light or whatever your real name is. You are this week’s

Libbe HaLevy 

01:11:03

We’ll have this week’s featured interview in just a moment, but first nuclear problems are going to continue to be with us forever. From uranium mining to weapons, production, to radiation, leaking reactors, to still not having a way to safely store the deadly radioactive waste produced by all these endeavors. Nuclear is government and industry not caring, how they contaminate the world as long as they keep making obscene profits and fool themselves into thinking that they are immune to the consequences of their actions when they most definitely are not. Meanwhile, we all have to deal with the dangers of radioactive contamination that will not go away on its own ever. Let’s be honest with each other. Nuclear is a deadly mess, and that is why you need nuclear hotseat to get into nuclear stories, with fact continuity and context, as well as skepticism and the occasional dollop of hope, we provide a much deeper and nuanced telling than you would ever expect on mainstream media.

Libbe HaLevy 

01:12:12

Nuclear hot seat gets behind the scenes under the skin and into the heart of nuclear matters every week with fresh information and unrelenting perspective and whenever possible humor. That’s why the time would be right now to support us with a donation, just go to nuclear, hot seat.com and click on the big red donate button to help us with a donation of any size. And that same red button is now where you can set up a monthly $5 donation. That’s the same as spending it on a cup of coffee and a nice tip here in the United States. So take nuclear hot seat out for a metaphor, a cup of coffee, and help us keep going. Please do what you can now and know that however much you can help. I’m deeply grateful that you’re listening and that you care here is this week’s featured interview about two weeks ago, and alarming video showed up on social media from Rachel Clark about radiation dangers.

Libbe HaLevy 

01:13:15

She had discovered literally in her own backyard in Vermont, my outreach to her for a short follow-up interview on her video, morphed into today’s feature, which includes a vision of how we can all become involved in documenting radiation dangerous in a way that counts and can be used to support the rest of our arguments. Originally from Japan, Rachel Clark holds a degree in international studies from Ramapo college in New Jersey as an independent interpreter global coordinator, her language capacity has been utilized in various international events. She supported the former prime minister of Japan now token at the coalition against nukes symposium in 2013 and former mayor of nego city Okinawa Schumer in a mini when he made various official visits to New York and Washington DC in 2014 and 2015, Rachel coordinated the English version of citizen’s radiation data map of Japan, which is now available in both digital and printed formats. We spoke on April 2nd, 2021, Rachel Clark. It is so good to have you here with us today on nuclear hot seat.

Richael Clark

01:14:30

Thank you so much for having me over. Oh, I’m so honored to be here today with you and with your audience.

Libbe HaLevy 

01:14:37

Let’s give people a little bit of background on who you are and how you became involved in nuclear issues.

Richael Clark

01:14:44

I am just ordinary and us citizen, and it was 2010 when I was working for a Japanese import export company. And there was some U N conference that was NPT nuclear non-proliferation review conference. That’s been taking place every five years. And that particular year, the Heba cushion survivors of atomic bombs, their organization decided to send 150 delegations to New York. So separately they needed ad hoc integrators to cover those people. Right? So each one, I think we got the group of 32 predators and each one got 10 people in a group. We spread two different directions lobbying as well as we helped. They’re giving testimonies to high school students, audience and things like that. So those three days changed my life completely. How did those three days change your life? First of all, the very first job that I did as an interpreter, that time was to work between you and ambassador of New Zealand and cautious.

Richael Clark

01:15:58

After that, I thought this is my calling just to interpreting between Mr and Mr. Vino. No, there’s something social meaning in between. So that kind of job has given me this great sense of accomplishment. I really wanted to pursue doing that. That’s number one reason. Number two reason is I took some pushes to the high school where my younger daughter was going to at that time. And the audience reaction was great. And after that, I was called by one of the faculties saying that Mrs. Clark, did you know that this school, his Alma mater of Robert Oppenheimer? Oh my God. And just by coincidence at that time, my older daughter was going to the university of Chicago, which was a hub of the Manhattan project, of course. Okay. So 65 years later, I took Heba kosha to that high school. You know, this whole coincidence gave me just a chill and I thought, oh my God, I think it’s going to be my lifetime job.

Richael Clark

01:17:07

And that’s how I am now. How did things change for you after Fukushima? Everything has changed. The big difference is the media, the mainstream media just gives us the surface, but the real news, you have to dig into it. As long as they have sponsors, they always cater for sponsors, net to readers and subscribers in ordinary people like me. So we’d have to dig into it. Then I started to look for independent investigative reporters, as well as my other personal jobs, as an interpreter for media people, newspaper reporters, and people like that gave me a very, very deep thoughts of just the ordinary news that I’d been encountered in on daily basis.

Libbe HaLevy 

01:17:58

You have been working with the mid nano data site. What is that? And what does it do

Richael Clark

01:18:05

Just by coincidence? I encountered one of their main people. When I was working as an interpreter on board queen Elizabeth, I happened to be in Yokohama port and I invited her to my boat. And there, she asked to me that she has certain English translation for which she was looking for somebody who can edit well, the, this group emerged after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. What happened was that the government of Japan publicly announced the level of a soil contamination, but they never touched the soil. The number that they published was calculated a month from the air pollution level. So when the mom and pops found out about this fact, they got so scared. They have a children’s who plays in the sandbox. They have a private vegetable gardens and so forth. They came to the conclusion, well, the government doesn’t do it for us. We have to do it so many private and civil society.

Richael Clark

01:19:14

Small groups popped up different parts of Japan. They started to measure the soil contamination level and they started to grow their network. You know, cesium one 30 fours half-life is two years. And they decided to do the third job before this half year passes so that they can leave very high quality scientific data for that. They had a big conference and chose one single common method that everybody pursue it. So they remeasure the contaminated soil. Then with this credible method, they came up with the data and they made a visible maps and beautiful, colorful map. And the, this map booklet became a huge hit. They translated it into English. And then I became a coordinator for this publication of the English version.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:20:10

I remember when that came out and it was very powerful because it was scientific evidence that the contamination in Japan was far worse than we have been led to believe. And here it was inland numbers in the maps, in the data, and even the English version, which was a reduction in size from the one that was published in Japan was tremendously powerful. Thank you. And I know we covered it here on nuclear. Hotseat I’ll look up what that episode is and see if I can link to it.

Richael Clark

02:20:46

Actually, we had to retranslate the entire thing because the original translation was done by Japanese person. So there was a long process, but very concise in the short period it’s done.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:20:57

What were some of the findings in Japan that are represented in the booklet?

Richael Clark

02:21:03

The contamination is not only limited to Fukushima, but all across Japan. That’s why those measuring lab had spread different parts all across Japan.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:21:16

That’s a pretty big finding.

Richael Clark

02:21:18

Yes, it is.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:21:19

You have been working with the Nin nano data site, and recently you posted a rather alarming video about something that you discovered on your own land. Tell us, where is that? What were you doing? And what was it that you discovered?

Richael Clark

02:21:39

I used to live in a metropolitan New York area and the last August I moved to upstate New York. This is the Northern tip of Adirondack from here. Canadian border is only two hours or less than two hours. So you can guess how far north I am right now. So I purchased a house with a land, a six point half acres. And it is very, very common that the people who live here use wood stove during the harsh winters. And I do have one too. I purchased the woods from local vendors and Brandon, Mr. Wonderful, warm. I love it. I love it. But through our conversation with members of maintenance data site, over zoom meeting, I came to an idea if there’s such a thing, like the contamination around here, how much would it be? So the one of the lab persons suggested me that I would send the Ash from my woodstove as a sample, which I did, and the results were so surprising. And I shocked because when I chose this house, you know, I made it sure that this is a far away, at least 50 miles away from the nearest nuclear power plants, right? And this is surrounded in beautiful nature. And the lab tests show that the Ash was 51 back rows per kilogram.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:23:07

A sense of exactly how contaminated that is, what would be considered normal or acceptable?

Richael Clark

02:23:16

Well, for example, prior to the Fukushima nuclear accident, the threshold of safe food in Japan was one bedroom per kilogram. Then after the accident and currently their threshold is a hundred Backroads per kilogram. Something used to be dangerous. Certainly it’s okay to eat.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:23:38

Even if it’s 100 times more course, of

Richael Clark

02:23:41

Course. Now my Ash is 51 by girls. And according the person who tested this, and this is the way he analyzed, they detected only cesium 1 37, no cesium 1 34, which means that the radiation is not from Fukushima. It must be from the nuclear tests conducted in this country. It’s soil season 1 37 half-life is 30 years. The hike of the nuclear test was like about 60 years ago. So it passed a two half lives, which means that it’s a quarter of the original level. It depends on the material, but when it would’ve burned, the radiation level will be concentrated up to like a 200 times. So if the result was 51 bad girls, maybe original wood before burning was about 0.2 to 0.3 equals per kilogram. Even here after burning 51 back roads per kilogram, if they do the same tests across the United States, the closer to the nuclear tests, the higher those results would be that’s my guess.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:24:50

And right now it’s only a guess, but we’re going to get to what can be done about that.

Richael Clark

02:24:54

Right? And also recently there were so many mountain fires on the west coast. Can you believe it?

Libbe HaLevy 

02:25:03

That’s where I live. And I’ve had to evacuate twice in the last 18 years.

Richael Clark

02:25:08

Maybe, you know, Californians can go outside. And the collector Ash, after, you know, mountain fire and they do the same tests, then they would find the results.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:25:18

It would be fascinating to do so because we have not only the fires, but through an interview I did with a seawater activist. I don’t know how to better stated right now, Tim dear Jones. He pointed out that the Marine layer, the morning Marine layer that goes inland, like clouds carry seawater with it. And that after Fukushima, it undoubtedly carried radiation inland much further away than you would expect it to go. And then that settles down. It becomes part of the ecology because the water goes into the soil, the plants take it up, the plants drop their leaves or the animals eat it or whatever it gets dispersed, but it never goes away because it’s still there. It’s still radioactive. Then there are the areas around nuclear reactors, and we know that the radioactive pollution from nuclear reactors also spreads far and wide

Richael Clark

02:26:17

Of the coast of Alaska. There’s a, I’ll keep a log of small islands at the very Western tip that island almost closer to the Russian border. I forgot the name of Diane on that particular island was designated as a nuclear test site,

Libbe HaLevy 

02:26:34

Is that I’m

Richael Clark

02:26:35

Chaka, something like that. So the radiation from those nuclear tests might have migrated toward the west coast as well before Fukushima.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:26:46

It’s all source for radiation and the spread of radiation. So what’s clear is that we don’t have to be near a known nuclear site in order to be impacted by radiation radioactivity in the environment. And radiation and food is always an issue because of course that’s a source of internal contamination, which is far more deadly than external contamination because there’s no distance between neutrons bombarding, the cells and the cells have no ability to protect themselves. So there’s a huge internal vulnerability. You am men and Odetta site have a vision of what it would take to help. So tell us about what you are thinking in terms of testing here in the United States.

Richael Clark

02:27:37

Yes. Thank you for asking that because I have a vision that this country’s citizens also should follow. What they did over in Japan. Usually government is pro nuclear energy. They try to minimize any ramification caused by nuclear power plants or nuclear deployment of nuclear weapons whatsoever. Therefore, we have to come up with our own effort to find out the reality of radiation. What they did in Japan was they started small citizens study groups. They purchased the radio activity, measuring devices, and they learned how to use it periodically. They looked for soil samples and they measured the results here. We should be able to do the same thing before that maybe the easiest step is to keep the baby teeth of your children or grandchildren and send it to lab. And then they can measure from there. Also, if you have any small gardens where you grow your vegetables and fruits, that’s another sample, very interesting, directly linked to your own health, no matter how organically you do, if it’s contaminated with radiation, you should avoid that. So as soon as I found the results from Japan, I wrote a letter to local Amish people around here because they tend to recycle Ash as a Friday riser of their vegetable garden. So I suggested that they should stop doing it and make sure that there’s one designated area in your property, in the Barrett and make sure that doesn’t blown away by the wind. And that’s what I would do too.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:29:25

And what was the response when you brought this up to them?

Richael Clark

02:29:28

They were so surprised. I brought some written documents of my own. And also I copy pasted some information from governmental mean Canadian governmental information. Also what that role means and what the microsieverts zebra it means and things like that. But the basic nuclear terms,

Libbe HaLevy 

02:29:47

Have they said anything about changing their growing methodology?

Richael Clark

02:29:53

Yeah. They already stopped recycling. The Ash, at least the people I encountered and hopefully the person whom I gave the written information. He, he was, he is a priest among them. So I think he can spread the word among his congregation.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:30:08

That’s terrific. Now looking at Japan, when it comes to the food, what kind of manipulations are still taking place there regarding radiation levels?

Richael Clark

03:30:21

Thank you so much for asking me that that’s a huge headache right now. I told you before that, prior to the accident, the threshold was one back road. Now it’s 100 bedroom. Then the government has a newer plan to further increase to 12,500 bedrooms per kilogram,

Libbe HaLevy 

03:30:43

The 12,500 Becquerel’s per kilogram. Are they trying to kill us?

Richael Clark

03:30:51

Obviously, this is only limited to three food categories though. What is a mountain vegetable? Now the one is a wild mushroom. The other one is meat from a wild animals. Yeah.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:31:04

And of course what’s wrong with that is that mushrooms are natural accumulators of radiation. They are the first and the worst, the wild animals eat the wild mushrooms or the other foliage that has been contaminated and they concentrated further within their system. So of course, they’re going to be at a higher level, which would reveal the level of contamination. So let’s cover up the level of contamination by saying you don’t need them so often just ignore the numbers, the numbers aren’t important because we’re going to raise them so high. They’re not going to register.

Richael Clark

03:31:37

Exactly. And they brought, brought the excuse of the threshold of EO and the codex, which is 10,000 back rolls per kilogram. But think about it. They can support their diet by their own produce. Japan’s tell food, they can support themselves only 30, some odd percent of the food. The rest need to be imported from outside the country. So if the Japan’s threshold is so loosen, probably other countries will target Japan in order to export their food, which are too high to contaminate to keep for their own people. They just get rid of it and even make money by selling them to Japan.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:32:24

What has been the response, especially among the community of activists who have been taking measurements to this new level, this is amazingly increased level of radiation is supposedly going to be allowed in food.

Richael Clark

03:32:43

Of course, they took this potential change very, very seriously. They’ve very quiet academic type of people. But for the first time they took a huge political step. They planned a press conference for us that was supposed to be, or they did it on March 9th. So in order to collect media attention, they spread the word ample time earlier, prior to the March nine, somehow that news got leaked, I guess, to their surprise. The government of Japan shows that same date to make their own announcement on top of that and scare the, you want a science academy also chose the March 9th to spread their results of report. It looks like orchestrated effort among those higher authorities.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:33:42

I’m not surprised because of course, with Marshall Levin being the 10th anniversary of Fukushima, I may have said it on the show, but I certainly said it in conversation that it was clear that the nuclear industry was mustering its forces to deflect attention from anything that the activists might be saying. So this sounds like a one-two punch coming from the government of Japan and on skier to cut the rug out from under the citizen, radiation monitoring group, something that would not have anywhere near the money to be able to promote it, but was of crucial importance to the health and safety and future of the people of Japan.

Richael Clark

03:34:24

But that was a greatly diluted version. I think they put so much higher authority on what they received from the government of Mr. Pam, but not, I mean, none of the other sites reality. So because of those double punch, they were not able to get the enough media attention on March 9th.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:34:44

That was less than a month ago from one we are talking now. So of course the opportunity is always there for them to increase the awareness in the future. Hopefully the near future, because this is so important. Are those standards now set in stone or are they just proposed? And they have to go through an approval process

Richael Clark

03:35:07

In the process and they are running a huge campaign, which need to be heard more people which need to receive more co-signing and the, I think number counts a lot. So I would like to spread the word through this opportunity that please, please sign this petition and do not. But the Japanese government changed the threshold to much higher. This is ridiculous.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:35:35

We will of course, link to that on our website, nuclear hot seat.com under this week’s episode, which is number five 11. So the government of Japan had this press conference to put this information forth. How has it been received and what has been the response? And has there been any pushback?

Richael Clark

03:35:58

Well, if you see the media, they covered only what the Japanese government’s announcement as well as a unscathed announcement. But the voice from the main nano data site has been almost unheard. A majority of people, plus it’s been under COVID extravaganza it’s sex. It’s been used to dilute and the erased UN undermine any issues that need to be heard is out of the mainstream media plus Olympic games

Libbe HaLevy 

03:36:33

And the ill advised torch run, which really should have been reduced to a clown car with a big lighter. It sounds like the government of Japan’s plan really had some grotesque contents. What was in there?

Richael Clark

03:36:49

Oh goodness. Contents. First of all, this was initiated by an elected representative from Fukushima prefecture to national diet in order to gain votes from, and to protect the interest of their certain constituents. Not all of the vast majority of them, but the second constituents who are wholesalers of local products who have been enabled to ship local products that are contaminated with higher level of radiation than the threshold, the current threshold.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:37:23

So in other words, to have it be legal just by changing the numbers that, oh, what wasn’t healthy, it’s perfectly all right for you. Because look, we changed the numbers.

Richael Clark

03:37:35

Exactly. That’s just a simple number of games for them.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:37:39

What else?

Richael Clark

03:37:40

Another point is when my colleagues, I mean the no data site asked about this matter to some residents in Fukushima, they didn’t know anything about this plan. And they became rather very unhappy because despite their long effort to keep lower than the current threshold, 100 barrels per kilogram, the new threshold, 12,500 barrels per kilogram would worsen the reputation of their products if it were in effect. So local people are willing to support my colleagues campaign against the government of Japan plant.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:38:16

How has the government of Japan been working to divide local people?

Richael Clark

03:38:21

That’s dairy tactful, for example, they included some matters related to a local biomass project, which ignited the conflict between those who are against nuclear and those who embraced biomass. So when you say biomass, it sounds very something healthy and clean, right? So why are those two environmental camps divided? Because their biomass is based on incineration, not on accelerating via decaying process. As I mentioned earlier, when what is burned to ashes, the radioactivity is about 200 times more concentrated. That is why untidy the nuclear people against the construction of an incinerating facility, which has been successful so far due to their strong opposition. Now, the government is saying that they would offer a bigger budget for a biomass project that incinerates radioactive award together with other garbage, thus, the original plan to increase the radiation threshold is now disguised and more spotlighted as the budget increases for the local forest industry. How has that

Libbe HaLevy 

03:39:38

Diabolical

Richael Clark

03:39:41

In addition, but they gave a press release on March 9th, the government of Japan also referred to the official you and a codex, which is 10,000 Backroads only for limited rare food, which is supposedly consumed less than 10% of their entire diet. But the government of Japan didn’t mention this condition when they did the press conference. So can imagine that Japan would be the target of exporting higher radioactive food for other countries. We cannot sell those to their own people. So by maintaining a high self sustainable rate, they have no issue without eating the real food, but for the people of Japan, they have no choice, but to rely on imported food, since you’re fans of food sales, sustainability, sustainable rate is less than 40%. So accepting up to 12,500 vehicles per kilogram means to pave the way to suffer with various cancers for them,

Libbe HaLevy 

04:40:44

Which of course would be the result of internal contamination with radiation. So they’re setting their own people up for down the line, a much higher cancer rate.

Richael Clark

04:40:54

Exactly. And that will be a more profitable business for medical industry. Isn’t it.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:41:02

Sometimes I just look at this stuff out, I go thinks

Richael Clark

04:41:05

This up.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:41:07

What is the role of the reconstruction agency in all of this

Richael Clark

04:41:12

Reconstruction agency is only focusing on reconstruct Tokushima in a way that they serve to big corporations, not to help people. The original new threshold of a hundred bedrooms per kilogram threshold was done the ministry of health, labor, and welfare. Earlier in this interview, I mentioned that the government plan was originally initiated by an elected representative from Fukushima prefecture, right? And just like, can we use this? Maybe the big construction agency among the government agencies is collaborating with the local representative and trying to push forward this plan and the head of the reconstruction agency that still cuts a cheetah seller is also from Fukushima prefecture. So two main people from Fukushima prefecture in the government, or to the government have been collaborating in order to actualize this much higher threshold. I can’t believe this story does. They’re trying to rush their local people.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:42:30

It defies logic. It defies compassion. It defies humanity. Now what is the work that is being done by the ministry of health, labor, and welfare in all of this,

Richael Clark

04:42:45

They worked years ago in order to change the threshold from a one bedroom, 200 federal, right? So now they run a public comment and somebody among our colleagues found out that, oh my God, they’ve been wanting this public comment. Let’s do it. Let’s do it. So they feel the way the public comments and the apparently 80% of those comments were very negative about this. I’m changing them even higher threshold. So ministry already aware of that and they didn’t want to deal with it. And the reconstruction agency taking more initiative on this matter lies the accountability of this government of Japan. I don’t think they have a certain designated authority to do this.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:43:34

It’s shocking, but at the same time almost to be expected in these matters that even when an enormous majority of people speak out against them doing something, the asking for comments is simply for show. It has nothing to do with them wanting feedback and being willing to readjust their behaviors. All they want is to say, well, we asked for comments and not expect anybody to follow up and they will go ahead and do exactly what they have in mind from the get go. Now, how are the farmers locally dealing with this?

Richael Clark

04:44:12

I think they were shocked because they been working so hard, less 10 years in order to clear the a hundred Backroads threshold, right? They put so much enormous effort to produce safer food for consumers. Now, suddenly government eyes, okay. 12,500 vehicles. You know what what’s going to do with what happened to what we’ve been doing? You know, so then to the, against this idea, of course, there was so much afraid of the reaction by the consumers.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:44:42

They’re afraid of the reaction from the consumers, but not of the citizens who are caught up in this system.

Richael Clark

04:44:50

Well, they themselves are the victims of this governmental bureaucracy, or as should I say, brutality, the government of Japan, it’s supposed to protect their own citizens, their taxpayers, their constituents. Whereas what they’re doing is completely catering for the nuclear industry, as well as the construction industry, also medical industry.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:45:20

There’ve been other interesting developments recently run us through what some of those are.

Richael Clark

04:45:26

The Olympic torch relay has started in Japan. They starting, if the torch will be relayed one point to another, however, two days ago, the governor of Osaka said that he doesn’t want the torture relate to come to Osaka, especially he doesn’t want it to run through the city of Osaka because that will attract more people. That’s against safety code of COVID-19. You’re not supposed to congregate. You’re not, you suppose that in a long distance, you’re not supposed to speak out loud voices. No, no, no. Rather they want people to stay home and be safe, take care of themselves, right? So this public fears, opinion, word cards, some kind of backlash or support from people of Japan, I would say. And I am hoping that the Olympic games will be canceled this year too.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:46:22

Now getting back to the idea of radiation measuring here in the United States, what would it take and how could we get started? And how might we work with men nano data site,

Richael Clark

04:46:38

I’m more than happy to mediate or interpret between Japanese precursors and you, as people who want to emerge their own measuring posts, it is very important that they follow the single common measuring method so that it’s scientifically compatible. It is very important that everybody followed the same measuring method in order to keep the accuracy of the entire data. So I would like to be introduced each other, those who want to do this in us and those already doing it in Japan. So start international network. I’m hoping to see big us map where the radiation level indicated at all different parts of this country. I would like to see overlapping with nuclear test sites, nuclear waste storage sites and nuclear power plants sites, as well as cancer prone areas of this country. Let’s see how they overlap.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:47:46

That is a resource that we have been needing for a long time and the vision that you have of what this is and how this can be modeled on a process that already exists in Japan and has proven successful and has been proven influential around the world because of the resulting publication. That is something for us to explore and find a way to Institute here in the United States. Because once we have that in hand, we can then move forward on legislation and on changes and on shutting down reactors and seeing what else can be done, but it will give some real muscle to the arguments that we have been having.

Richael Clark

04:48:32

Exactly. Yes. And if the us follows other parts of the world will follow too. And currently the French translated version of this radiation map book was published in France. So I think in this way, more global languages versions will follow. There’ll be wonderful to see the global convention of those radiation, measuring posts get together if certain point the global convention and share their knowledge, their information exchange, and to see how we’ve been living in this nuclear world. Absolutely. I would say no note to construct a new nuclear power plants, I would say no, no to develop any more nuclear weapons, I would say no, no to launch any satellites fueled by nuclear batteries,

Libbe HaLevy 

04:49:30

Rachel, you are, what can I say? A consistent activist, someone who has seen work that needs to be done and move forward to get it done. And now you are in a position to inspire an entire national movement of activists to take out their radiation, measuring devices, learn a protocol, follow it, report their results. And as a result, give us some of the power that we need to go to the authorities and say, stop doing this. And for all of that, for your good work, and also for you taking the time on very short notice to speak with us, I want to thank you for being my guest this week on nuclear hot seat.

Richael Clark

05:50:15

It’s my highest honor and pleasure. Thank you so much for having me over here today.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:50:20

That was Rachel Clark. She is a professional translator who works with the mean the no data site, the Japanese group that published and distributed both the original Japanese language and the English translation of the citizens’ radiation data map of Japan will have links to Rachel’s original video, which kicked off the chain of events that led to this interview up on our website, nuclear hot seat.com. Under this episode, number five 11, we will also have other links to Rachel’s initial video, the minnow data site and their resulting booklet. Now here is the exciting news, Rachel and I had a chance to brainstorm a bit about what it would take to set up a program like this for radiation monitoring in the United States, she immediately contacted her colleagues in Japan about it. It seems that great anti-nuclear minds run along similar pathways because the group is already writing a guide, how to launch a radiation measuring lab.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:51:24

Once it’s done, it will be translated into English for a possible new project that will launch a us version of the citizens lab network. Rachel is spearheading this process and we’ll be reaching out to individuals and groups that would be interested in starting a lab in their community. From these initial contexts, the program can ultimately include gardening groups, four H clubs, the Scouts, schools, even the PTA, and any other group you can think of the goal is to create coordinated data and put it into a radiation map of the United States. While the research and planning are taking place, we need to know where our initial on the ground radiation monitoring troops might be. So if this project interests you and you want to be kept up to date, as it develops, send an email to radiation monitoring [email protected]. And of course, as we get closer to the launch, you’ll hear about it. First on nuclear hot seat,

Libbe HaLevy 

05:52:37

The native American forum on nuclear issues is going to present a five part series on the impact that nuclear issues have a native American communities across the country. Speakers include Wynnona LaDuc Tom Goldtooth, Carletta to Lucy candy, white Myron, Dewey, Tommy rock, Manny Pino, Joe Kennedy, and there will also be featured artists, including Jack Belott, Seron, thunder Richards, and Byron Hudson. This series takes place from April 26th to 30th, and you can sign up for it. It doesn’t cost anything, but you have to go through Eventbrite and we will have a link up on our website, nuclear hot seat.com under this episode. Number five 11, if any of you has or know someone who has any stock in Exxon, this is for you. There is apparently a semi rebellious stockholder group within Exxon calling other shareholders about the upcoming vote on new board members with a proposal to elect four more independent director candidates, including some supporters of renewables, nothing.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:53:53

However has been said about nuclear. A friend of mine has retained a few shares of Exxon stock so she can keep tabs on what they’re up to. She recently received this call though. She cut through the script. The caller was using to rip the woman on the other side about nuclear, telling her flat out it is not green. It is not carbon free energy source. And given that my friend lives in Nevada and here I quote, we don’t need no stinking nuclear waste. There’s a reason why we’ve been friends for all these years. So if anyone, you know, has a share or two of Exxon lying around and they get this call, they need to deliver the exact same message. Nuclear is not green. It is not carbon free. It is not the solution to climate change and don’t ship nuclear waste to Nevada or New Mexico or west Texas, or anywhere else fix it in your own backyard.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:54:50

And finally, the latest ranking news is that last week nuclear hot seat hit number 31 in podcast business rankings in Canada. Let’s keep this going. This has been nuclear hot seat for Tuesday, April 6th, 2021 material for this week show has been researched and compiled from nuclear-news.net doing renard.wordpress.com beyond nuclear international.com. The international campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons, the guardian.com NBC washington.com pbs.org, the sun.co.uk KTV b.com E S i.org St. Louis today.com Atlas obscura.com, cbc.ca Japan times.co.jp business, wire.com and the captured and compromised by the industry. They’re supposed to be regulating nuclear, put it in quotes, regulatory commission, thanks to all of you for listening and a big shout out to all of you. Nuclear hot seat listeners and followers around the world in 123 countries on six continents and the counting, Hey, you know, nuclear hot seat is available for broadcast as well. We are syndicated through Pacifical audio port.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:56:14

And if you know of a local community-based radio station that would like to carry the show, let me know, send the station, name their information@anycontactsyoumayhavewithinthestationtoinfoatnuclearhotseat.com. We’ll follow up and do what we can to add them to our growing network around the United States. And if you would like to make certain that you don’t miss a single episode, you can have nuclear hotseat delivered via email in your inbox. Every week is easier to manage. Just go to nuclear hot seat.com. Look for the yellow opt inbox and sign up for the weekly email link to the latest show. Along with a short summary of some of the material that is in it. We also want you to participate in other ways. So if you have a story lead, a hot tip or suggestion of someone to interview, send an email to [email protected]. And if you appreciate weekly verifiable news updates about nuclear issues around the world, as well as in your own backyard, as you heard on this show, take a moment to go to nuclear, hot seat.com and look for that big red button, click on it, follow the prompts.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:57:31

Anything you can do will help. And we will really appreciate your support. This episode of nuclear hot seat is copyright 2021 Leiby Halevi and heart history communications, all rights reserved, but fair use allowed. As long as proper attribution is provided. This is Leiby Halevi of heart history, communications, the heart of the art of communicating, reminding you that minimizing the impact of nuclear radiation on our lives and health might make some people feel safe, but lies don’t change scientific facts. They just keep you trapped in a danger with no way to escape and with facts, we at least have a fighting chance. There you go. You have just had your nuclear wake-up call. So don’t go back to sleep because we are all in the nuclear hot seat,

Announcer

05:58:26

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