NH #498: Radioactive Olympics Deja Vu: UPDATE by Dr. Alex Rosen of IPPNW

Libbe HaLevy 

00:00:02

The Olympics in a case of radioactive deja VU, Japan is pushing forward with the 2020 games still calling them the 2020 games in 2021 and holding to the exact same schedule as before, including the torch relay, which we’ll spend three days in the radioactively contaminated area directly surrounding the remains of the Fukushima Daiichi, triple nuclear meltdown, disaster Japan, and the international Olympic committee are saying, eh, no problem. But then you hear a genuine expert tell you,

Dr. Alex Rosen

00:00:38

And your participate in a torch relay that takes place in the contaminated zone, right around the nuclear power plant. This can be an actual danger to your health. And these will be young people who will be essence. It will be children carrying this Olympic torch, those first symbolic few days to focus Shima

Libbe HaLevy 

00:01:00

Well when Dr. Alex Rosen, a pediatrician and chair of the German affiliate of international physicians for the prevention of nuclear war comes out with that kind of warning for athletes Torchbearers and those who think it’s a good idea to be on the roadside and cheer them on. You realize that they’re all volunteering to sit smack in the middle of that one deadly radioactive seat that we all share.

Announcer

00:01:28

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

Libbe HaLevy 

00:02:00

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, we talk about the upcoming radioactive Olympic games in Japan with Dr. Alex Rosen. He is a pediatrician and co-chair of the German affiliate of the international physicians for the prevention of nuclear war or IPP. And w we learn of their information campaign about not only the dangers faced by those who attend the Olympics, but how the games are being used as a propaganda tool to disguise, Japan’s push to normalize the area and force evacuees back into their homes, whether they want to or not.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:02:59

We also have nuclear news from around the world numnuts of the week for outstanding nuclear bone headedness, and more honest nuclear information than has yet to come out of Georgia. All of it coming up in just a few moments today is Tuesday, January 5th, 2021. And here is this week’s nuclear news from a different perspective, catching up with stories from over the holidays in mid December, hackers tied to Russia hit the nuclear regulatory agency, and at least three states as part of a suspected Russian cyber attack, creating the biggest cyber security breach in recent history. In addition to the NRC, the departments of Homeland security, treasury commerce and state were also hit ed Lyman, director of nuclear power, safety, climate, and energy for the union of concerned. Scientists has published six things you need to know about the 2020 cyber attack and a nuclear power plants. He states that while the scope of a cyber attack is still far from clear so far, there have been no reports that the NRC or any individual nuclear facilities have been affected.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:04:13

Lyman then states it is highly unlikely that malevolent actors today could directly cause a severe accident at a us nuclear power plant because the instrumentation and control systems for the most important safety systems are primarily analog non-digital. They are relics of an era decades ago when these plants were built, there’s more and we will link to it on our website, nuclear hot seat.com under this episode, number 4 92, the wall street journal reports that president Illich Biden is going to review us nuclear weapons programs with an eye towards cuts. On the other hand, the Washington post reports that in the $900 billion Corona virus relief bill $11 billion are earmarked for nuclear related subsidies. Where would that money be going in part to the U S department of energy, which is now backing five projects to develop new nuclear reactor designs, touting them as being quote unquote advanced without describing what the advancement actually is in nuclear branding is everything. And now

Libbe HaLevy 

00:05:29

Like you thought small modular nuclear reactors were bad enough. We’ll Argonne national laboratory is developing a nuclear micro reactor. They say, could be deployed at rest stops. Meaning truck stops providing a reliable quote unquote carbon-free that’s a lie right there. Charging source for electric semi-trucks. These guys are so teeny tiny. They’re only about the size of two home water heaters. And what kind of terrorist possibilities does that present critics have pointed out the obvious that there’s insufficient evidence that small reactors are safer than large nuclear power plants, and also will take years before they’re ready to be deployed. Whereas new solar and wind resources could be built much more quickly. So stop linking green electric vehicles to nuclear let alone nuclear that has not even been constructed at this point. So Argonne national laboratories and the brainiacs behind this particular idea, you are this week’s

Libbe HaLevy 

00:06:42

I think in Japan, exceedingly high radiation levels have been found inside the crippled reactor buildings at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The levels were labeled by nuclear regulators as an extremely serious challenge to the shutdown process and overall decommissioning of the site Japan’s nuclear regulatory authority said huge amounts of radioactive material apparently had attached to shield plugs of the containment vessels in the number two. And number three reactors radiation levels were estimated at 10 sieverts per hour, a lethal dose for anyone who spends even an hour in the vicinity. Are you sure you still want to go to those Olympics? Speaking of which a peer reviewed journal article published by the journal of environmental engineering science carries the title radioactive isotopes measured at Olympic and Paralympic venues in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo, Japan. These are the results of a study done by Arnie and Maggie Gunderson of Fairwinds energy education and professor Marco, Paul Johann called toughen department of physics, Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts quoting from the article.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:08:00

It stated that it detected modest radioactive contamination at Olympic venues in Japan and found significant alpha beta and gamma emitter contamination at Japan’s national training center. We’ll link to fairwinds.org. So you can get the full information Tokyo electric power company TEPCO has just posted on its website, hundreds of aerial photos that were taken between March 20th and 24th of 2011, just after the start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. While apparently attempting to give the impression of belated transparency on Fukushima issues. KEPCO has pixelated entrance areas of the reactors and communal swimming pool, which makes us wonder what they’re still trying to hide. And four major Japanese life insurers will not invest in or extend loans to producers of nuclear weapons or companies related to them. Sounds like they just signed on to don’t bank on the bomb just in time to proceed the entry into force on January 22nd of the UN treaty that will ban nuclear weapons.

Libbe HaLevy 

00:09:09

The four life insurers manage eight combined, 151 trillion yen or 145 trillion us dollars in assets, hoping that hurts the nuclear industry. Big time in Ukraine, the river running past the Chernobyl nuclear reactor is being dredged to create a shipping route, potentially resurfacing radioactive sludge from the 1986 disaster that could contaminate drinking water for 8 million people in Ukraine. This goes against recommendations from the international atomic energy agency that, that your noble exclusion zone should remain undisturbed due to long lived contamination from the Soviet era explosion. Iraq has announced that it will be suing the United States over depleted uranium use and the cancer strokes and birth deformities that have followed in its wake Baghdad will be filing suits in courts in Sweden and Germany over alleged major us crimes, including the use of depleted uranium munitions and over the holidays, a disabled and captain lists, Russian nuclear powered freighter container ship face, Gale force eight winds of 34 to 40 miles per hour.

Libbe HaLevy 

01:10:23

And there was definite danger of it going aground, all credit to the French maritime authorities who recognize the potential threat and deployed a series of escort vessels to help it get to safety. We’ll have this week’s featured interview in just a moment, but first happy 2021, or should I say, at least we’re hopeful that this year will be better than last because of its not, we’re all in a lot more trouble than we expected in truth. All this new year’s nonsense with dates is an artificial construct based on a made-up calendar because truly the sun will rise and the sun will set one day at a time and no matter what name or number we give it, we will still have nuclear problems. Radioactive contamination from uranium mining, through manufacturing of fuel rods and plutonium pits for weapons, the transport of materials, reactor operation forever radioactive waste with no way to safely store it.

Libbe HaLevy 

01:11:27

The environmental racism that comes along with it, no matter what year we’re in, nuclear is a mess that will be with us, no matter what date we are looking at. And that is why you need nuclear hot seat. We keep you up to date on the nuclear story. We know where to look for it, know the questions to ask and we report on the ongoing, evolving nuclear truth that the industry would rather we not hear about let alone understand, and let’s face it mainstream reporters don’t know to ask and probably don’t have the time to do so. So yes, that’s why this would be the time right now to support us with a donation, just go to nuclear hot, seek.com and click on that big red donate button to help us with a donation of any size at that same red button, you can set up a monthly $5 donation, same as a cup of coffee and a nice tip here in the U S please do what you can now and know that however much you can help.

Libbe HaLevy 

01:12:30

I am deeply grateful that you’re listening and that you care. Now, here is this week’s featured interview. The Olympics are again upon us with Japan and the international Olympic committee mandating that they take place on the exact same schedule at the same venues. And all of it will start in and around Fukushima to find out the latest on the radio active Olympics. We spoke with Dr. Alex Rosen. He is one of two co-chairs of the German affiliate of the international physicians for the prevention of nuclear war or IPP. And w he is responsible for the topic of nuclear energy. Dr. Rosen is a pediatric specialist and head of the pediatric emergency department of the Berlin university clinic. Sheritta in the past 10 years, he has closely followed the developments in Fukushima, especially the Fukushima medical university, thyroid screenings, and published numerous critical commentaries on the world health organization and unsecure reports and the screening publications and health effects of the nuclear disaster. We spoke with Dr. Alex Rosen on December 21st, 2020, Dr. Alex Rosen. Thanks so much for joining us on nuclear hot seat.

Dr. Alex Rosen

01:13:49

Hello, thank you for having me.

Libbe HaLevy 

01:13:51

When we last checked in, it was about the 2020, what was then the 2020 Olympics and the plans going forward, both for the torch run through the Fukushima area, the radio active area, and also the fact that some of the early heats in the competition were going to be conducted in the Fukushima area at the stadium that was going through to March of 2020, when things got postponed delayed, and then turned into the 2021 Olympics. What, if anything has changed in terms of the circumstances between the lead-up to 2020 and what we are facing now is they, again, are claiming that the Olympics are going to happen this year.

Dr. Alex Rosen

01:14:35

That is a very good question. What has changed? Well, everything and nothing. Everything has changed. As we all know in terms of the Corona virus pandemic, the Olympics had to be postponed for a year. Something that we haven’t seen happening outside of war times ever, basically. And there is still until now very a great anxiety, whether or not the Olympic games will take place at all. But the Japanese authorities have pretty clearly stated that they cannot imagine a situation which would cause the Olympics to be canceled. So this is quite a statement to make in these very interesting times. What has changed is really not that much. They move the Olympic schedule. One year later, minus one day, everything will take place one day early on the calendar then in 2020, but they even kept the logo and the name, it will be the Olympic summer games, 2020 and taking place in 2021.

Dr. Alex Rosen

01:15:36

So it’s still Tokyo 2020. They have actually stuck to their plan to have the Olympic torch relay first pass through the radioactively contaminated zone, right around the nuclear power plant. It’s focused Yuma hen. They’ve stuck to their plans to symbolically open the games in focus, Shima city with the baseball and softball matches. So all of our criticism initially, and remember, we don’t criticize the Olympic games as such. I know there’s a lot of good arguments to criticize Olympic games, the whole commercial aspects of it, the corruption aspect in terms of using this money for venues, rather than using it for development, education and other important issues. But our criticism is, is aimed mainly at the fact that they are using these Olympic games to divert attention from the real story in Fukushima, namely the continuing nuclear catastrophe. The fact that nuclear waste is continually being emitted into ground water into the ocean.

Dr. Alex Rosen

01:16:46

The fact that they will dump radioactive water into the Pacific effect that people still can return to their homes and probably will never be able to, to divert this attention away and focus more on the happiest states, Olympic games, people cheering, people, laughing, people having fun. And while this is all true, I think we’re all grown up enough and informed enough to be able to see the ambiguity that you can have a little bit games, but still you have to see, you have to visualize, you have to respect the situation that people are still suffering. And these things don’t rule each other out in an adult society, you can see both sides. You can address both sides. And this is what we are aiming for. The people going to the Olympic games, going to Japan to celebrate sport and youth and championships. And to also see the continuing catastrophe and Fukushima to respect what’s going on and to respect the people who are still suffering. What, if any acknowledgement has

Libbe HaLevy 

01:17:49

The international Olympic committee or the committee as it has manifested in Japan, given to the fact that Fukushima is there and that there is still radioactivity sometimes at dangerous levels,

Dr. Alex Rosen

01:18:02

None, basically the international Olympic committee relies on the Japanese counterparts. We have stated very clearly that there is no danger that there is no continuing threat that everything is under control. I mean, the claims they’re making are really preposterous. We contacted our national Olympic committee here in Germany, and we said, you know, what do you say to the athletes, to the visitors? We’re asking you, is it safe to go to Japan? And we would have expected rather nuanced or scientifically profound answer. But what we got was we talked to our Japanese counterparts, the Japanese Olympic committee, and they’ve stated that there’s no risk of a natural catastrophe taking place during the Olympic games.

Dr. Alex Rosen

01:18:50

It wasn’t the question. And, and I’m sure everyone knows that you can make a claim that there will be no earthquake. There will be no tsunami. There will be no volcanic eruption, anything, because you simply don’t know. You can say the risk is small or large, but you can’t say there’s no risk. So basically our main argument continues to be, we’re not saying that if you go to the Olympics, you will return as a mute. We’re not saying it’s dangerous to sit in a sports park in Tokyo to watch big athletes compete. This would be Posterous. What we are saying is that you cannot hold Olympic games in a country that is continuing to suffer from a nuclear catastrophe and not address the issue and act like nothing is happening. And even worse act like everything is normal. Put up Potemkin villages along the route of the torch relay act. As if there was no radiation clean up the place. And then after two days it becomes the radioactive wasteland. It still is. After all the cameras have gone, this is not the right way to go about such an important event as the Olympic games,

Libbe HaLevy 

02:20:02

From your perspective and the perspective of IPP and w what is the risk to the athletes, to people who would be participating to union members who are with the various broadcast aspects of this who are going to be there and laying wires and putting equipment together, is there zero risk or is there possibly some,

Dr. Alex Rosen

02:20:26

Well, there is never zero risk. I mean, if you go to, I don’t know, Atlanta and have an Olympic games, there’s pollution. If you go to London or to Paris, there is pollution. There is all kinds of toxic agents in the air. And so in those terms, Japan is probably not such a dangerous place compared to other where the Olympic games have already taken place. The main difference is that in Japan, the organizers have opted not just to hold the Olympic games in Tokyo, but to symbolically hold a few events in Fukushima prefecture, they’re calling these the reconstruction games, and they do want to bring this point across that after 10 years, they’ve now come to terms with the catastrophe of 2011 and everything is fine. And this is the main problem. I, like I said, if you fly to Japan, if you sit in a sports stadium in Tokyo and you watch the games, the risk that you have does not come from radioactivity, the risk might come from the flight there.

Dr. Alex Rosen

02:21:33

The risk might come from the perpetual risks that you have in Japan of earthquakes and things like that. The difference is if you go and you’re participate in a torch relay, that takes place in the contaminated zone, right around the nuclear power plant, this can be an actual danger to your health. And these will be young people. This will be essence. This will be children carrying this Olympic torch, those first symbolic few days to focus Shima. And this is a major criticism where we’ve started an international petition to really stop these plans. But again, our main issue is not the health of the athletes or the visitors. Our main issue is the greenwashing or the white washing of the current situation for Kashima, where people are suffering. People have become nuclear refugees. People are being forced to relocate into their contaminated hometowns. And this is being ignored. This is not being addressed. This is our main criticism, not so much the health of the athletes participating in the games.

Libbe HaLevy 

02:22:39

There has been a lot of research that’s been done on what the radioactivity is, what the dangers are. I’m thinking of the recent peer reviewed study that was done by Arnie Gunderson of Fairwinds energy education and Michael of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. And I’m wondering what their results have shown and how you have incorporated that into your outreach.

Dr. Alex Rosen

02:23:07

On the one that there has been a lot of research. There have been some publications. On the other hand, it has to be said that Japan has clamped down on a lot of efforts to really scientifically approach the nuclear catastrophe. We’ve just gone through in a very broad and very structured literature analysis of the major literature databases, especially with medical literature about the nuclear catastrophe. And 10 years later, we can say that having looked through all of the major databases for the major keywords around the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, it can be set that we found a vast number of publications by the Fukushima medical university, trying to show that the medical effects are in fact, it’s not there or that the medical effects that we do see cannot be associated with the nuclear catastrophe. There are some good publications on the psychological and the social impacts of the nuclear catastrophe in terms of post-traumatic stress disorder, in terms of the general psychological welfare of the refugees or the workers.

Dr. Alex Rosen

02:24:19

There’s a number of good research papers about the effects of radiation on ecology, on the non-human biota on plants and animals in the ocean, and in the forests of Fukushima, there’s hardly any literature, any publicized research on the health effects on humans and the ones that are published tend to be published by a small group of researchers and Fukushima medical university, which are centered around scientists called Shinichi Yamashita. Who’s in Japan, kind of well-known figure called Mr. Hundred millisievert. He was the spokesperson for the government in the early months of the, of the nuclear catastrophe stating that 100 millisievert of radiation is completely harmless, and you can be exposed to it. In addition to these scientific papers, there are some publications, for example, by Greenpeace or by Fairwinds with woods hole oceanic institutes, which have covered topics like the radiation deposits in coastal waters in the bay of, of Tokyo, which is rather interesting for the water bounds sports competitions that are taking place in the Olympics, but also on nuclear radiological hotspots.

Dr. Alex Rosen

02:25:41

And this is rather interesting because it always makes a difference. If you look at the official numbers, the official measurements of MBS and radiation. And if you look at these publications, which clearly show that you can measure low levels of radiation, if that is what you want to show, but you can also go five meters away from these measurement posts and find regular active hotspots. For example, on the side of the road, in gutters, in corners, or on the side of, of rice patties, and you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that human beings don’t just stand next to measurement posts. They walk along roads children play in forests in fields on the lawn, small children eat dirt from the ground where they play. And that means that if you really want to make a statement about the possible health effects of living, staying, playing in an area, it’s not enough to just measure ambient radiation levels at one meter or one meter, 50 height at certain very protected spots behind buildings.

Dr. Alex Rosen

02:26:54

But you also have to realize that there are radiological hotspots and Greenpeace, especially has been able to demonstrate this very profoundly alongside the root of the nuclear torch relay. And this is very relevant because there will be people running through contaminated areas with the Olympic torch. And if they pass these areas and there’s air, or they are they’re running and dust swirling up, they can actually inhale these radioactive isotopes, and this can cause harm to their health. And this is so far away from the official measurements, which have very little bearing on what actually goes on in the ground, because none of these runners will run past this measurement posts, which are hidden behind buildings. They will run them on the roads. And this is where you need to measure. And Greenpeace has, has found some, some hotspots there, which then were cleaned up and then they found new hotspots. And we would wish for a more transparent and honest debate about the real radiological health hazards. And you would very quickly come to the conclusion, which of course you would also come to if you didn’t not to these measurements, that it does not make sense from a health point of view, from a humanitarian point of view, from a logical point of view, to hold the torch relay in a nuclear hot cell,

Libbe HaLevy 

02:28:22

There is an outreach that has been formulated through IPP and W2 Olympic athletes. What does that consist of and what are you hoping to accomplish with it?

Dr. Alex Rosen

02:28:36

We wrote letters to a famous Olympic athletes, both in Germany, in the us, in the UK, in Russia, in France, in South Africa, people who were or still are famous for their Olympic wins for their astounding accomplishments in the field of athletics. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to gain some visibility in the athlete community for our cause. And again, and this is very important. Unlike other campaigns, which are calling for the Olympics to be canceled, we have from the very beginning, said, this is not our issue. There are people in our campaign who want the Olympics to be canceled. There are people who are big fans of the Olympics. It doesn’t matter what we want is for the reality on the ground to be appreciated, to be visualized, to be respected. And so we’ve contacted these athletes and we asked them, do you want to become a face of our campaign?

Dr. Alex Rosen

02:29:39

Do you want to speak for our campaign? Is this a topic that would interest you? And of course, we contacted a lot of athletes, which are political activists, ecological activists. So far, we haven’t been that successful in gaining traction in the athletic field. It seems that this topic is, is rather radioactive. People are, people are, I think, a bit afraid to come out and, and speak on this topic. At least they are right now. I’m very anxious to see, or I’m, I’m, I’m interested to see how this will develop in March when we have the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, when people remember and recall these images 10 years ago, and when they bring them together in their mind of the plans to hold the torch relay in the exact same spots that you’re seeing in these videos of people fleeing, being evacuated, radioactive, fallout, taking place.

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:30:41

And this will be very interesting because I think that will be a sort of reckoning with the reality that these two things can’t be separated. You can’t just imagine that this didn’t happen 10 years ago, or imagine that it didn’t leave a lasting impact. And so our hope is that with this outreach, with this letter, that we’re sending out to many different national Olympic committees and Olympic athletes, we will gain some support in the athletic field, perhaps even amongst athletes who are participating in the Olympics, although we are not focusing on them because we don’t want to politicize the Olympic games. We don’t want to divert people’s attention, especially the athletes attention away from what they are actually coming to Japan to do. So I think the responsibility can be placed on the shoulders of the athletes of the young people going to Japan to compete, but the responsibility should be at the Olympic committee level, because these are the people that they’re responsible for hosting these games and for being responsible for the athletes as well.

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:31:42

And the general public, which, I mean, in past the Olympic games, we were able to address issues that have gone beyond the sporting venues. You don’t have to politicize the Olympic games to address topics like colonialism or imperialism. When you host the Olympic games in London, you don’t have to politicize the Olympic games when you address issues like deforestation. When you’re in Brazil, these are issues that automatically come up. When you look at the country that you are hosting Olympic games in. And I think it’s, it’s a powerful possibility that the Olympics offer it’s kind of a looking glass or a magnifying glass on a certain situation on a country in a certain point of time. And it’s very difficult in these times, I think for government or an Olympic committee to filter this image and to create an image that want to be portrayed to the world and black out everything that they deem unacceptable.

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:32:46

And I think in this age, this is simply not possible, and it would make much more sense for them to address these issues that we’re talking about heads on to be more transparent because anyways, people will be looking at them. We’ll be talking about them. I mean, if journalists go to Japan in March of 2011 and are standing on the side of the road with their Geiger counters saying, well, this is radioactive land. Why are we holding a torch relay here? These are issues that will be discussed in evening news that will be discussed in the sports television channels and will be discussed in the newspapers. So why even tried to ignore it from the beginning, it will come up. It won’t be discussed. And we hope that people will realize that this, this should have been an issue from the beginning,

Libbe HaLevy 

03:33:33

February 27th, the German section of international physicians for the prevention of nuclear war IPP, and w is organizing an international symposium 10 years, living with Fukushima, it’s going to be held in Berlin, but of course will be available online to the rest of us. What is that going to consist of?

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:33:52

Like I said, we’ve gone through a very structured analysis of the available literature and we’ve filtered out what we see as the 75 most relevant published peer reviewed pieces of scientific literature on the effects of the nuclear test theme. We’ve specifically not stated 10 years since the nuclear catastrophe, but 10 years living with the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima, because this is the reality people today in Fukushima are still living with the impacts of the nuclear catastrophe. It is not over, it is continuing and it’s developing. And these anniversaries this 10 year, 20 year, 30 years, anniversaries are always a chance to refocus public attention on an issue that might not have gotten the attention it deserves in recent years. And we try to offer a chance for media, for politicians, for the general public to really get a rundown on which literature informed the past 10 years has been relevant.

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:35:00

What do we know for certain, where is there still some need for further research? And I think it will be a very interesting event with a lot of new information, for many people who have not continually managed to follow all of the news coming from Fukushima, but it will also be a lot of mixed messages. I mean, on the one hand, there are 75 very well-researched papers that, that we can present. And on the other hand, there’s still a very, very big void, very vast amount of research that never took place that should have taken place that will probably not be able to reconstruct 10, 20 years later. And so these, these very vital first 10 years of the nuclear catastrophe were not researched as well as they should have been. And the main reason for this is that the government, the Japanese government is still very much behind the idea of a nuclear renascence.

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:36:07

They still want nuclear power to play a prominent role in the energy mix in Japan. They want the nuclear power plants to go back on the grid. And so they have very systematically tried to subdue research activities to steer, to maneuver research activities towards fields that are less harmful in what they’re portray or even manipulate from some of the research such as the thyroid research of the Fukushima medical university, which is more or less becoming less and less useful as the government and the Fukushima medical university are encouraging people to drop out of the research.

Libbe HaLevy 

03:36:47

Can you explain a little more about the dropping out of people from this particular?

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:36:54

The thing is a study that was supposed to be performance in a population of around 380,000 young people from Fukushima people who were under the age of 18 at the time of the meltdowns would offer a wonderful and a unique opportunity to study the effects of a nuclear catastrophe on a pediatric population. This is something that hopefully will never happen again, and it will be a possibility to really understand the effects. So in our view, as scientists, I am a pediatrician, we would put the utmost importance on trying to keep this cohort, this population together, and be able to study it respectfully with the permission of the children and then their parents, or as the children become older of the young people in order to show them that their experiences and their fate was it’s not inconsequential. And that we’re trying to learn from what happened and trying to also prevent certain events from happening again.

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:38:03

But this is not what is happening in Fukushima. What is happening is that out of the original 380,000, 80,000 were initially never extended and out of the 300,000 that were initially examined every two years where there’s a second and a third and a fourth round of screenings of ultrasound examinations. More and more people are not followed up on, and there’s numerous reasons people can move out of the prefecture. People can just not come to the examinations, refuse to come or forget to come, but there’s also a more systemic problem in that the Fukushima medical universities actually visiting schools is holding talks to in city halls to parents stating that, you know, all of this knowledge about early forms of thyroid cancer, it’s not so useful. It’s better to just let things happen. And if you don’t know about a certain cancer, it will not make you so sad and will not make you anxious.

Dr. Alex Rosen

03:39:07

So there’s a right as they call it to not know and this right, or this privilege to not know, it’s something that they are really promoting. And it’s leading to people saying, you know, I don’t really want to find out if I might have fibroid cancer, I will not go to these examinations. And this is something they are pushing. For example, with the questionnaires, you know, you can make a questionnaire and say great that you’re participating wonderful. You’re setting a wonderful example. And if you don’t want to participate in the bottom line, there’s a box that you can tick, or you can put the box up away on top and say, you don’t have to participate. Please take care of you don’t want to participate anymore. Or if you don’t ticket, then you automatically are dropped out. And they’re really using these very subtle mechanisms to encourage people or to make it as easy as possible for people to drop out, leading to lower rates of people being examined year to year.

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:40:02

We are now in the fourth round at levels of about half of the original population actually being examined. And what’s even worse is you would imagine that if someone is, let’s say 10 years old at the time of the nuclear meltdowns, you would examine him when he’s 12, when he’s 14, 16, 18 20 22, 24, 26, 28. And so on to really catch the early signs of cancer, the early signs of radiologically induced disease. If you don’t want to show this, what do you do? You finish the examination at age 25. You say two years before you turned 25. You’re not allowed to have thyroid checks anymore. And then once you turn 25, we do a separate examination. We give it a separate name. It’s a completely separate study. You have to register for it. It’s a little bit complicated. You also have to pay for it, but of course your will, you’re able to do it.

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:41:02

And then you watch the numbers go down. And this is what’s happening. There’s the official research being done for children until they are 23. And when they are 25, there’s a new study called the age 25 milestone study. And guess what the participation rate is in the lower single digits, there’s less than 10% of the people who would be illegible to participate are participating. 66,000 people are illegible little bit more than 5,000 have participated so far. So of course, with this, you’re really able to bring the numbers down. And by bringing the numbers down, the numbers of people you are testing, of course, you’re also lowering the number of the thyroid cancers that you find. And there’s more, if they find a fibroid cancer at one of the official screenings, it’s registered as an official thyroid cancer. And it enters the statistics. If they find a malign lesion that could become a cancer, but they don’t know at one of the screenings, they invite the children in for additional testing, less than two years after this event, which makes sense.

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:42:15

If you have a lesion that is highly suspicious, you don’t want to wait two years. You look at them again. After six months, they invite them not to the Fukushima medical university, but to the university hospital, just across the street, but it’s a different institution. And if they find cancer there, they get the same treatment. They get an operation. The thyroid is taken out. They are taking thyroid hormones, but their case of fibroid cancer is not registered in the official study. Why? Because the fibroid cancer was not found in the Fukushima medical university, but in the Fukushima university hospital. And these are very subtle techniques, which work extremely well in confusing the data, making the data less accessible, less transparent, and in effect, making it worthless because what good is a study population that is depleted to about half spread out over two or three separate examinations, which work in different populations at different ages, with different preconditions in different places where you sometimes counted and sometimes don’t count the cases. And in the end, no one really knows what’s going on anymore. I mean, I’m a scientist. I know how studies work. This is not how you design a study. If you want to show an effect, this is how you design a study, or this is what you do with a study. If you want the study to not show an effect,

Libbe HaLevy 

04:43:54

It’s like on the one hand with the Olympics, they are changing the international and public perception. And at the other end, they’re making certain that the numbers aren’t available there was the longevity study that I believe is still going on after Hiroshima Nagasaki, that was started five years after, and that has been consistent. And that data has been mined for some very important revelations for people understanding much more about exposure to radiation. And it sounds like with that as the model of the way a study should be modeled, they’re doing as much as they can to make certain that doesn’t happen now.

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:44:36

Well, they have the experience from the lifespan study that if you do such a study, you do find effects. And if you don’t want to find effects, you don’t do such a study.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:44:45

So bringing this back to the symposium, the event that is going to be held on the 27th, 10 years of living with Fukushima, are there results that have been found through the data that will be revealed or discussed at that point that do speak to the dangers that are there?

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:45:07

Well, definitely this, if we didn’t have data, we would need to have such symposium. So what we’re focusing on is mainly five big topics. We’ve picked out five topics that we see are exemplary for the effects of radio activity. And of course, while we’re putting together a leader with all of the literature, we have to focus on certain papers. One of the things that we’re focusing on are the effects on the thyroid. I was just criticizing the study a lot, and I think it deserves to be criticized, especially for the way it’s being handled. But nevertheless, it’s the biggest fibroid cohort study that has ever been performed on a pediatric population. And despite everything that I’ve just told you, despite all of the problems with this study, it still shows an extremely high incidents of thyroid cancer in children, which can only be explained with the ionizing radiation that they were exposed to because it’s incidents arise in incidents of about the factor of 17 over 10 years, it continues to rise year from year to year, there is no possibility that is screening effects can account for an annual rise in thyroid cancer incidents.

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:46:23

Very, very much above what we’re seeing in the rest of Japan’s pediatric population. Especially if you take into account that the highest rise in incidents is taking place in the areas that receive the highest amount of radioactive fallout. Whereas the lowest incidents rise is taking place in the furthest areas west of Fukushima, which received the lowest nuclear fallout. So all of these arguments are going to be presented and discussed. We will have a second big topic being the perinatal effects effects of radioactive fallout on perinatal mortality, perinatal morbidity on the rate of preterms, there will be a third session, mainly focused on the ecological aspects on the non-human biota on animals and plants. There will be a fourth session on the impact on the oceans groundwater and the bay of Tokyo. And there’ll be a fifth one. And I think this will be very interesting because it’s something that is usually not covered so much the psychological and the social impact of the nuclear catastrophe.

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:47:32

And we really are focusing on the nuclear Chester feat. We all know that it was a triple catastrophe, was an earthquake, a terrible, terrible earthquake with an extremely terrible tsunami followed by a triple nuclear catastrophe about three nuclear meltdowns. And we’re looking at the effects that we can discern specifically from radiological fallout. There are some very good studies examining the traumatic post-traumatic stress impact on nuclear workers or nuclear cleanup workers on refugees, which had to leave the area, not because of the earthquake and tsunami, but because of the nuclear catastrophe. And there are also some good studies on the psychological impact in correlation with the radioactive fallout. So how does that relate? How do suicides relate to the amount of radioactive fall out in the area? And these are very interesting subjects all the while we have to be careful not to fall in the trap that the nuclear lobby or the nuclear industry is continually laying for us, meaning the radio phobia trap.

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:48:37

There’s always this argument that the most harmful impact of a nuclear catastrophe is not the radioactivity itself, but the fear of radioactivity causing psychological problems, psychosomatic problems. And this is an argument that we’re looking at in depth. In this session, we have a very renowned psychiatrist who will discuss this issue and really look at what’s behind these arguments. So these are the five sessions that we’re hosting in the beginning. We’ll give a, an introduction into the health impact of ionizing radiation as a whole about the events that happened 10 years ago. And in the end of the session, we’re trying to put it all together and formulate which research still needs to be performed and which political demands also come out of the research that we already have. What

Libbe HaLevy 

04:49:29

Language is this symposium going to

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:49:31

Be conducted in, in English, in English? It’s an international symposium in English. There are some speakers who will speak in Japanese subtitles or translation, but I think everyone else will speak English. We have some speakers from the U S from the UK, from Canada, from Germany, from Switzerland and from Japan.

Libbe HaLevy 

04:49:49

How will people be able to access it if they wish to

Dr. Alex Rosen

04:49:52

Watch it live? Well, there is a website that we’ve created. It’s called Fukushima disaster dot D E. And on this, you can, you can then find the link to the video conference. And we’ll also put up the YouTube videos online after, after the event is taking place. So it’s possible to watch it live, but it’s also possible to watch it a couple of days or even weeks afterwards, we’ll publish a reader, we’ll publish some, some videos with the best off. So sort of like you don’t have to watch all eight hours. You can just watch 10 minutes summary, and this will all be available on our website, focused Shima disaster.as

Libbe HaLevy 

05:50:28

We’re coming up upon, not just the symposium, but the start of Olympic season, as it were with the torch run. What can listeners of nuclear hot seat do to support you and IPP and w in this work

Dr. Alex Rosen

05:50:44

Go to the www radioactive minus olympics.org, you will find our petition. This is a petition calling for a rescheduling or a replacement of the torch relay, which we don’t think should be taking place in the radioactive hot zone. And also the symbolic opening games in Fukushima city. So the relocation of these two events is what this petition is about. And of course, everyone who hasn’t done it yet can sign this international petition. We will be handing over the signatures to the Japanese embassy at the, at the anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. And so we are hoping we’re not naive enough to think that they will really relocate the Olympic torch relay because of our petition. We do hope that we get some media attention and that we actually are able to address this topic in the media and in the reports that will take place around the torch relay.

Dr. Alex Rosen

05:51:42

Because I mean, if the torch relay takes place in the nuclear hot zone, and the journalists are asking, you know, has anyone thought of this, this, this, this, this critical issue. I hope that they will see our petition. They will see how many tens of thousands of people worldwide have scientists petition. And they will also see that there has not been from the official Olympic or Japanese side, a real conversation on these issues. They’ve pretty much pushed this issue through from the very beginning. And they weren’t open to arguments at all. They weren’t open to any suggestions that this might not be a good idea, and this is highly problematic. If you, if you organize such an event and you don’t really look at the science, you don’t look at the data. You don’t look at the arguments against doing it in a certain way. So this is what we’re hoping to, to gain with this petition. And of course it does make sense to go to this website also, because there’s a lot of information about, for example, the radiological situation of the Tokyo bay area, the situation with the radioactive water that’s supposed to be dumped in the Pacific. The thyroid screenings are explained in more detail on this website. So just to inform yourself, it’s a good place to visit. Plus you will find the link to our symposium, of course, and all the scientific data that we’re publishing there,

Libbe HaLevy 

05:53:03

Dr. Alex Rosen, you have always been a source of brilliant, concise, focused information on Fukushima every time we’ve spoken with you and for now, thank you, being my guest this week on nuclear hot seat.

Dr. Alex Rosen

05:53:19

Thank you,

Libbe HaLevy 

05:53:20

Dr. Alex Rosen, co-chair of the German affiliate of the international physicians for the prevention of nuclear war IPP, N w we will have links up to the symposium and further information on the Olympics from IPP and w on our website, nuclear hot seat.com under this episode, number 4 98

Announcer

05:53:42

Activist Shoutdown!

Libbe HaLevy 

05:53:51

To sad acknowledgments as we start off on a new year. The first is that COVID 19 has taken the life of a Russian anti-nuclear activist, Rashid Ali mould from Greenpeace, Russia. He succumbed on December 17 to COVID and was only 40 years old, a journalist before he became an activist. Alimo helped found the Russian language, environmental magazine, ecology, and rights before joining Greenpeace among his major contributions was a series of articles and working papers on remotely positioned radioactive batteries used in navigation, beacons, which pose lethal hazards in Russia’s polar region. He was commemorated beautifully by Linda Pence Gunter in a post from beyond nuclear international.org. And we will link to that. The other is Carrie Dan of the Western Shoshone nation, who was an environmental and land rights activist. She died at age 88, along with her late sister, Mary Dan Kerry, Dan firmly campaigned to assert the rights of indigenous people, the Western Shoshone nation, and committed themselves to the political and legal battle to retain their ancestral lands, which were threatened by nuclear tests, carry out by the United States for their actions.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:55:14

The sisters were awarded the right livelihood award. And as principal man of the Western Shoshone people wrote there is a sacrifice to live here in the desert. The water is our identity and the desert is our identity to our mother. And water is the lifeblood. As Carrie Dan said, she lived a life of sacrifice. That is the Shishoni living way, condolences to all of us. This has been nuclear hot seat for Tuesday, January 5th, 2021 material for this week show has been researched and compiled from nuclear-news.net to own renard.wordpress.com beyond nuclear, the international campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons, or I can bloomberg.com wall street, journal news, atlas.com. New republic.com. Courthouse news.com counterpunch.org, asahi.com fairwinds.org, right livelihood award.org beyond the bomb.org Asia Pacific report dot N Z E news.net and the ever co-opted regulatory captured nuclear regulatory commission. Thanks to all of you for listening in 123 countries on six continents, as well as those of you who hear us broadcast on the Pacifica audio port network.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:56:39

If you know of a community radio station in your area that would like to carry nuclear hot seat, let me know of them, let them know of me, and let’s get that conversation going. Just send an email to [email protected]. Now, if you want to get nuclear hot seat delivered by email every week, it’s easy. Go to the website, nuclear hot seat.com. Look for the yellow box, feel in your first name and an email address, and you will get each week show as soon as it is posted. You know, this is a participatory show, and I count on you, the listeners to let me know what’s going on in your area. 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, take a moment to go to nuclear, hot seat.com.

Libbe HaLevy 

05:57:36

Look for that big red button, click on it, follow the prompts and know that 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 hardest street communications, all rights reserved, but fair use allowed. As long as proper attribution is provided. This is Libby Halevi of harvest street communications. The heart of the art of communicating, reminding you that we can always come up with the date that a nuclear emergency begins, but we can never come up with a date that it’s over because once it starts, it’s never over. That’s it? That is your first nuclear wake-up call for 2021. Now, whatever you do do not go back to sleep because we are all in the nuclear hot seat,

Announcer

05:58:28

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