Hi. This morning’s Democracy Now is a must; a fascinating, substantive interviews
of Mumia Abul Jabbar’s attorney and the journalist who has covered his trials since
his arrest. Amy then turns to the first interview I’ve heard with an actual reporter in
under attack there. Many, outside of
or heard have cited the voice of those under attack. Here’s a chance to weigh theory
with testimony.
Ed
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/26/chernobyl_catastrophe_25th_anniversary_of_worlds
AMY GOODMAN: It was 25 years ago today when a deadly explosion at the
Children born in the plant’s vicinity continue experiencing high levels of birth defects, especially severe brain damage. In this clip from the 2003 documentary Chernobyl Heart, a nurse at a children’s care facility applies medication to the severely infected and mutated hands of a little boy.
NURSE: [translated] I think he’s in danger of losing his hands.
INTERVIEWER: [translated] Is there a relationship between radiation from
NURSE: [translated] I think so, of course. I’ve been working here for 19 years. I can definitely say that the children before were not as mentally deficient, and now they have more physical and mental handicaps. They were born with some kind of abnormality and were abandoned.
INTERVIEWER: [translated] You seem like you’re about to cry. Are you always this close to tears?
NURSE: [translated] I can’t handle this. I have two children myself.
AMY GOODMAN: That was a clip from Chernobyl Heart, a 2003 documentary film by Maryann DeLeo. The film won the Best Documentary Short Subject Award at the 2004 Academy Awards.
Today, environmental activists are demonstrating on the
TOBIAS MUENCHMEYER: [translated] The Chernobyl catastrophe began exactly here 25 years ago. Six weeks ago, we saw a Japanese atomic catastrophe. What else are we waiting for? We urgently need to move to alternative sources of energy: wind, solar energy, the use of biomass energy. All this exists. It just needs a political will to move to alternative energy sources.
AMY GOODMAN: A full quarter of a century after
To discuss further what took place 25 years ago, we’re joined by Dr. Janette Sherman. She edited the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and Nature. She’s joining us from
We’re also joined by Dr. Jeff Patterson. He’s the immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. He visited
Jeff Patterson, let’s begin with you. Talk about what happened 25 years ago today and what you saw when you went there afterwards.
DR. JEFF PATTERSON: Well, a month after the accident, which irradiated a huge area—and the radiation went worldwide—I was in
Two years after
And the records on many of those workers are simply gone. They’ve disappeared. I spoke recently with a physicist who was involved with monitoring the radiation at the plant at that time, and he said these workers had no protection. They wore paper masks, that they often didn’t wear. And he said he’s tried to find the records in the
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to Janette Sherman. Dr. Janette Sherman, describe what happened on this day 25 years ago in
DR. JANETTE SHERMAN: Well, there had been a decision to do a test on the reactor, and they—it was started on the day shift, and then it couldn’t happen, so they postponed it to the afternoon shift, and finally it was undertaken on the night shift, where people were not prepared, and they achieved a runaway nuclear reaction, which they could not control, and had an explosion that we’re contending with ever since.
We still—even though it’s 25 years later, we’re still dealing with the radiation at
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Jeff Patterson, the casualties of
DR. JEFF PATTERSON: Well, I think we do have a wide range of figures, and I don’t think we know for sure. When we look at the
And the other issue is, the
AMY GOODMAN: And this figure that the
DR. JEFF PATTERSON: Well, it’s a little difficult, because the bomb was exploded a thousand feet in the air, and so it was a one-time dose of radiation. The thermal energy initially killed about 100,000 people, and subsequently 100,000 or so more have died from the effects of the radiation and other injuries. And so, the force of the blast is essentially what we’re talking about here and also the radiation effect. And I think the fact is that more radiation has been released from the
AMY GOODMAN: On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the
PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV: [translated] The recent events have reminded humanity that we can’t take things easy and that, when making important decisions, it is necessary to take into account a whole range of issues which in the future might affect safety. Of course, I mean the situation around the Japanese Fukushima 1 nuclear plant. At the same time, we should not block development. The peaceful atom remains the cheapest and, in general, environmentally the cheapest type of energy.
AMY GOODMAN: Late last month, President Obama unveiled a new energy policy, seeking to reduce the use of foreign oil while reaffirming also his commitment to nuclear power.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It’s important to recognize that nuclear energy doesn’t emit carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so those of us who are concerned about climate change, we’ve got to recognize that nuclear power, if it’s safe, can make a significant contribution to the climate change question. [...] And we’re going to incorporate those conclusions and lessons from
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Jeff Patterson, your response?
DR. JEFF PATTERSON: Well, I think nuclear power, nuclear energy, has three poisonous Ps, and those are pollution—and we’re certainly seeing the example of that now at the 25th anniversary of
Second is price. And as Medvedev said—he claims that this is the cheapest form of energy. It’s by far and away the most expensive form of energy. When we figure in the results of these disasters and the cost to people’s health, the economic loss, the agricultural loss, the
And the third poisonous P is proliferation. Nuclear power and nuclear weapons go hand in hand. Medvedev talked about the peaceful atom that was designed by Eisenhower. Well, it’s out of the peaceful atom program that has come nuclear weapons for many countries. And we’re seeing the example of that in
AMY GOODMAN: An evacuation zone study is being released by your group, Dr. Jeff Patterson, Physicians for Social Responsibility, that shows there are many nuclear plants in the
DR. JEFF PATTERSON: Yes. We’re doing a presentation in which we’ve developed a map that you can click on and see in your area how near you are to a nuclear power plant and then look at the evacuation zones out from that power plant. And for example, in
The mayor of South Miami, Florida, just wrote a letter, when, after the Fukushima accident, he was trying to find out what the evacuation plans are for South Miami, which is 16 miles from a nuclear power plant. And he, as mayor, can’t find out what will happen and feels that the plans are totally inadequate, including the plans to distribute potassium iodide. He tried to find out from the county how many tablets of potassium iodine were available, and they wouldn’t tell him.
So I think that the lesson in this is that wherever this happens in the world, it happens to us all—the radiation from Fukushima is here, we’re still experiencing radiation from Chernobyl that has gone worldwide, and so no one is isolated from these accidents—and that no matter where it occurs, whether we blame the technology in Russia, whether we blame the tsunami, that we are all totally inadequately prepared to deal with this. We are attempting to manage the unmanageable. And so, we need to rapidly move away from this and rapidly move away from nuclear weapons in the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Janette Sherman, you’re known for a prophetic paper you wrote some six months before the Fukushima catastrophe, where you wrote, "Given [the] profound weather effects (earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, [etc.]) human fallibility, and military conflicts, many believe it is only a matter of time before there is another nuclear catastrophe." Can you talk more about this and what you feel needs to be done? I mean, you talked about this before
DR. JANETTE SHERMAN: Well, we clearly need, as a society, to say no to nuclear power, because there is no way to control it. And as Dr. Patterson points out, these catastrophes will continue, and we can’t—we, simply, as a world society, cannot deal with them. When a nuclear reactor explodes, the radiation goes around the entire hemisphere. It is not confined to where the people live—or where the accident occurred. The effects are ubiquitous across all species: that’s wild and domestic animals, birds, fish, bacteria, viruses, plants and humans. So the effects are extremely serious, and they last for generations. We’re terribly concerned about
We need to stop the use of nuclear power. We have other sources: conservation and solar and wind and biofuels. We need the population to rise up and say, "No more nuclear." It’s not going to work, and it will just be a matter of time before there’s yet another accident, such as occurred—is occurring at Fukushima Daiichi. We know now they still do not have this accident under control, and it’s still releasing massive quantities of isotopes. And it’s going to be a disaster for the Japanese population, but also it’s spreading around again the northern hemisphere.
AMY GOODMAN: You had talked about the liquidators in
DR. JANETTE SHERMAN: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And you also look at those in
DR. JANETTE SHERMAN: Well, in
Now, we don’t know if the cleanup workers in
It’s very, very, very important to keep adequate records on exposures and the effect of the workers and make them publicly available, certainly not by the name of the individual person, but certainly the data needs to be available and transparent so scientists can follow what is happening to these people. The problem within
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Dr. Janette Sherman, I want to thank you for being with us, specialist in internal medicine and toxicology, edited the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and Nature. And Dr. Jeff Patterson, as you head off to the news conference of Physicians for Social Responsibility, could you just describe Chernobyl to us today, what is it like?
DR. JEFF PATTERSON: Well, it’s an area 30 kilometers in circumference that is totally out of bounds to humans. And no crops are grown there. Some people have moved back in. Large areas of the earth has been scraped off, trees cut down. And all of that earth has been buried in trenches. And now, as they are attempting to build the new sarcophagus, they’re finding high levels of radiation in the ground with machinery that was buried immediately in the area. There are graveyards with tanks, buses, machines, that are highly radioactive, that are just sitting out in the open air. And interestingly enough, a recent report showed that the cesium levels around
But clearly, the unknowns are far greater than the knowns in all of this. And this is an experiment that we’re carrying out with the unknowing and unconsenting irradiation of huge populations of people around the world. We’re now seeing, for example, in
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Jeff Patterson, thank you so much for being with us, immediate past president—
DR. JEFF PATTERSON: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN:—of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which is holding a news conference today to release a new report.
No comments:
Post a Comment