Shadow Elite Najib Out to Kill his Owm People: "Safe" Nuclear Power? No Such Thing RADIATION LEAK THREATENS 140,000

WATCH:

I remember well the impact of the Chernobyl disaster, having left Poland the week before. I was in close phone contact with Polish friends as radioactivity spread to their region. People were told to stay indoors, wash their hair. Out of that disaster, activists were born: I encountered them later when I studied the environmental movement in eastern Europe. Now Japan is facing its own nuclear energy crisis. And today, engineer and economist Lloyd J. Dumas, the author of 2010's The Technology Trap: Where Human Error and Malevolence Meet Dangerous Technologies, argues that nuclear technology cannot be made safe. - Janine R. Wedel

In the aftermath of the horrendous disaster in Japan, serious damage to a number of nuclear reactors in that country has once again called into question the wisdom of relying on nuclear power for an important part of our electricity supply. Are we overreacting?

No. Nuclear power is an inherently dangerous technology. Nuclear plants are designed with multiple levels of protection against disaster. But power reactors live in a delicate balance between using the heat from nuclear reactions to turn water into steam that drives electricity generators, and keeping the core of the reactor cool enough to avoid potentially catastrophic melting of the fuel rods. It is precisely this delicate balance that has been disrupted at the Japanese reactors.

First the ground shaking of this unexpectedly powerful earthquake did some as yet unspecified damage to the nuclear plants, which are designed to withstand lesser quakes. Then the tsunamis that rolled in from the sea added to the damage. The result was a loss of both off-site and on-site power, crippling the plants ability to operate critical reactor cooling systems -- one of the most serious situations that a nuclear power plant can encounter. With coolant levels dropping in the reactor core, fuel rods were exposed and rapidly began to overheat, turning steam into hydrogen that has already exploded at several reactors. Worse yet, the buildup of heat is melting the fuel rods, driving the reactors farther out of control. As a last ditch emergency measure, the plants operators have flooded the cores of the troubled reactors with seawater, which will temporarily keep them cool enough to forestall disaster, at the cost of corroding and ruining the reactors.

But natural disaster is far from the only source of danger. Nuclear plants are also appealing targets for terrorists. From 1976-2000, there were more than 1800 nuclear safeguards incidents, including 740 "bomb-related incidents", at American nuclear plants according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We have been told that the only airliner hijacked on 9/11 that did not reach its intended target was likely headed for the White House or the Capitol. But after it was taken over and before the passengers and crew fought with the hijackers, the plane was headed in the direction of and only about 15 minutes flying time from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. If that world-famous plant was the intended target, had the hijackers succeeded, we could easily have had an American Chernobyl on our hands.

Something as mundane, ubiquitous, and unavoidable as human error is also a potential source of nuclear disaster. A combination of design error and failure to follow guidelines for safe operation of the reactor at Chernobyl played a key role in triggering that catastrophic accident in 1986. Nuclear plant operators in the U.S. have reportedly been found asleep on the job or impaired by alcohol or drugs, apparently as a reaction to what is most of the time an extremely boring job. There is even some early indication that human error may have played a role in the still unfolding events in Japan. Apparently, no one had ensured that there was an adequate supply of diesel fuel for the generators that serve as a critical backup for powering emergency core cooling systems.

Finally, there is the problem of how to ensure the safe storage of nuclear waste. It was blithely assumed in the early days of nuclear power that before enough dangerously radioactive waste had accumulated to be a serious problem, we would develop new technologies to safely treat or at least store the waste. More than half a century has gone by since then, and the truth is we have made some progress, but we still don't have that problem anywhere near solved. Yet we continue to generate more and more of this long-lived waste, even as we contemplate expanding nuclear industry once again.

If we had no alternative ways to power our society and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear energy would still be a very risky path to follow. But there are a wide variety of practical alternatives available, from serious attention to improving energy efficiency (while maintaining our standard of living) to a whole host of ecologically benign renewable energy sources. Decades ago, the Sandia National Laboratory estimated damages into the hundreds of billions of dollars could be caused by a major accident at key nuclear plants in the U.S. It is hard to imagine even a catastrophic accident at a field of wind power generators that could do more than millions of dollars of damage. More important, the threat to human life and the environment posed by nuclear power is also much, much greater. Natural disasters, such as the gigantic earthquake off the coast of Japan, remind us of the fragility of even our most impressive technologies and the utter interconnectedness of our modern societies. We cannot prevent these disasters any more than we can eliminate the potential for human malevolence that leads some people to terrorism or overcome the ubiquity of human error. But we can choose to depend on technologies that do not expose us to the level of risk posed by nuclear power. That is certainly within our reach.

Never mind, that Australia has declared it does not need nuclear power or that Switzerland has suspended its nuclear plans and that hundreds of thousands of Germans have marched to protest extending the lifespan of nuclear reactors in their country, Malaysia Boleh (can and will)!

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin told the press on Tuesday that while the world was concerned about the nuclear meltdowns taking place in Japan, the Najib administration will forge on with its plans to build two nuclear plants.

According to the DPM, local agencies will protect the country and keep it safe from any contamination from radioactive pollution or natural catastrophes.

“I'm sure that there are some lessons to be learnt like the safety of the country and the people. But our agencies know what they are doing and they are doing the best they can,” he had told reporters when asked if Malaysia would review its unpopular proposal.

Malaysia Boleh is the government's famous rallying cry, initiated by former premier Mahathir Mohamad in the 1990s. But even the usually gung-ho Mahathir has drawn the line at nukes, saying that the country's enforcement policies were not yet up to mark.

Not wise

Both Muhyiddin and Prime Minister Najib Razak have travelled to Paris the year before to consider proposals from French vendors, who have been touted to have been granted the deals.

Malaysia is looking to build two 1,000 megawatt nuclear power plants by 2022 to counter an "imbalance" in its energy supplies. The Cabinet had in May given approval in principle to the construction of the country's first ever nuclear power plant by 2021.

The proposal drew fire and sparked heated debate but the Najib administration stood firm, saying it was the only way to ensure sufficient power for the future. The response on Tuesday to Muhyiddin's reply was no less intense.

"The decision is completely stupid. He doesn't know what he's talking about, unless he has personal interest in the project. They should think carefully about this decision and evaluate other options. It is nonsense to say we are not in the earthquake zone. We have witnessed this natural disaster so many times," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

The Najib administration has come under fire of late over projects that gave little weight to environmental considerations. Just last week, news leaked that he had granted Australian miner Lynas a US$291 billion rare earth refinery project at his home state of Pahang.

This despite fact that in the 1980s, a similar refinery had leaked radioactive material that led to several deaths and cases of leukaemia. It has been reported that Mitsubishi Chemicals is spending US$100 million to clean up the radiation waste at the Asia Rare Earth plant in Bukit Merah, Perak.

Stick with solar

Meanwhile, Bukit Lanjan assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong also pounded the BN's decision to go through with the nuclear plants.

"Like Japan, Malaysia is also on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, the ring of intense seismic activity around the Pacific Ocean. We have already learned that we are vulnerable to tsunamis and we can also feel the effects of earthquakes. Whether they be built on the west or east coast of Peninsular, the proposed two nuclear power plants will be vulnerable to seismic-related activities," Elizabeth, an active environmentalist, said in a statement.

"The nuclear industry and nuclear agencies have a long history of accidents, cover-ups and poor follow-up on safety standards. Japan is not unique in this regard, as it is a pattern found around the world. Britain’s nuclear safety agency recently admitted in a court case that it had covered up radiation leaks from a plant 50 miles from the centre of London. The Fukushima disaster has also shown that the safety back-up plans in place were inadequate. Despite being warned by experts and citizen groups that stronger earthquakes and tsunamis could happen, they failed to plan for them."

She urged the Najib administration to stick with solar power, saying it had more potential.

"The Barisan Nasional government has proposed that Malaysia embrace nuclear power at a time when we still have domestic supplies of oil and gas (albeit dwindling ones), abundant riverways, huge amounts of biomass fuel, and limitless sunshine. Furthermore, this year is not only the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, but also the year in which Malaysia is supposed to become the world’s number three producer of solar cells," said Elizabeth.

"Solar power has been on a downward price trend, a trend that has only become more aggressive as demand for clean energy has risen and more producers have emerged. By 2021, the year in which Prime Minister Najib hopes to unveil his nuclear plants, solar power will be even more cost-competitive than it is now."

Dangerous levels of radiation are leaking into the atmosphere following a fire and explosions at a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, officials warned on Tuesday as the country reels in the wake of last week's devasting earthquake and tsunami.
Radiation levels around the Fukushima No.1 plant on the eastern coast had "risen considerably", Naoto Kan, the prime minister said, and his chief spokesman announced the level was now high enough to endanger human health.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday upgraded the crisis to a level-6 "serious accident" on its 1-7 scale of nuclear incidents. The Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, considered the world's worst nuclear disaster, was a grade-7 incident.
But the IAEA's Japanese chief, Yukiya Amano, moved to calm global fears that the situation could escalate further.
"Let me say that the possibility that the development of this accident into one like Chernobyl is very unlikely," he said.
In Tokyo, some 250km to the southwest, authorities also said radiation levels 10 times higher than normal had been detected in the capital, the world's biggest urban area, but said the increase didn't pose a threat to health.
Kan warned people living up to 10km beyond a 20km exclusion zone around the nuclear plant to stay indoors. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been evacuated from the affected region.
"I would like to ask the nation, although this incident is of great concern, I ask you to react very calmly," he said.
The official death toll from last week's twin disasters rose to 3,373, police said on Tuesday, while officials said at least 10,000 were likely to have perished.
Japan was shaken by more strong aftershocks on Tuesday, prompting buildings to sway in Tokyo. The first, measuring 6.2 in magnitude, struck on Tuesday night off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, 325 kilometers northeast of Tokyo. Three minutes later, a 6.0-magnitude quake rumbled under Shizuoka prefecture, 90 kilometers southwest of the capital.
"We had an aftershock of about 6-magnitude," said Wayne Hay, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Akita. "I was on the 11th story and certainly the building did sway for about 30 seconds."
Supermarkets stripped
Fearful citizens stripped supermarket shelves on Tuesday, prompting the government to warn against panic-buying, saying this could hurt the provision of relief supplies to quake-hit areas.
Scared Tokyo residents filled outbound trains and rushed to shops to stock up on food, water, face masks and emergency supplies amid heightening fears of radiation. At the city's main airports, hundreds of people lined up, many with children, boarding flights out.
"I'm not too worried about another earthquake. It's radiation that scares me," Masashi Yoshida, cradling his 5-month-old daughter Hana at Haneda airport, told the Reuters news agency.
The fire, which was later extinguished, broke out in the plant's number-four reactor, he said, meaning that four out of six reactors at the facility were in trouble - and temperatures were reportedly rising in the last two.Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao, reporting from Yamagata, said a no-fly zone has been established in a 30 km radius over the Fukushima plant.
Damage is 'massive'
Radiation levels later dropped at both the plant and in Tokyo, Yukio Edano, the chief government spokesman, said.
As well as the atomic emergency, Japan is struggling to cope with the enormity of the damage from Friday's record quake and the tsunami that raced across vast tracts of its northeast, destroying all before it.
Japan is the only country in the world to have experienced a nuclear attack - two bombs dropped by the US during World War II killed some 200,000 people - and citizens are gripped by fear of nuclear fallout.
"What we most fear is a radiation leak from the nuclear plant," Kaoru Hashimoto, 36, a housewife living in Fukushima city 80km northwest of the stricken plant, said.
"Many children are sick in this cold weather but pharmacies are closed. Emergency relief goods have not reached evacuation centres in the city. Everyone is anxious and wants to get out of town. But there is no more petrol."
More than 200,000 people have already been evacuated from the exclusion zone around the crippled plant.
At one shelter, a young woman holding her baby told public broadcaster NHK:  "I didn't want this baby to be exposed to radiation. I wanted to avoid that, no matter what."
Social harmony
However, even in evacuation centres filled with quake-shocked and tsunami survivors, Japan's famed emphasis on social harmony is in evidence.
From the sharing of tasks among volunteers to the neat arrangement of shoes outside the living areas, life in the shelters is orderly and peaceful.
The crisis at the ageing Fukushima plant has worsened daily since Friday's quake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems.
On Saturday an explosion blew apart the building surrounding the plant's NO.1 reactor. On Monday, a blast hit the Dangerous levels of radiation are leaking into the atmosphere following a fire and explosions at a nuclear plant in northeastern Japan, officials warned on Tuesday as the country reels in the wake of last week's devasting earthquake and tsunami.
Radiation levels around the Fukushima No.1 plant on the eastern coast had "risen considerably", Naoto Kan, the prime minister said, and his chief spokesman announced the level was now high enough to endanger human health.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday upgraded the crisis to a level-6 "serious accident" on its 1-7 scale of nuclear incidents. The Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, considered the world's worst nuclear disaster, was a grade-7 incident.
But the IAEA's Japanese chief, Yukiya Amano, moved to calm global fears that the situation could escalate further.
"Let me say that the possibility that the development of this accident into one like Chernobyl is very unlikely," he said.
In Tokyo, some 250km to the southwest, authorities also said radiation levels 10 times higher than normal had been detected in the capital, the world's biggest urban area, but said the increase didn't pose a threat to health.
Kan warned people living up to 10km beyond a 20km exclusion zone around the nuclear plant to stay indoors. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been evacuated from the affected region.
"I would like to ask the nation, although this incident is of great concern, I ask you to react very calmly," he said.
The official death toll from last week's twin disasters rose to 3,373, police said on Tuesday, while officials said at least 10,000 were likely to have perished.
Japan was shaken by more strong aftershocks on Tuesday, prompting buildings to sway in Tokyo. The first, measuring 6.2 in magnitude, struck on Tuesday night off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, 325 kilometers northeast of Tokyo. Three minutes later, a 6.0-magnitude quake rumbled under Shizuoka prefecture, 90 kilometers southwest of the capital.
"We had an aftershock of about 6-magnitude," said Wayne Hay, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Akita. "I was on the 11th story and certainly the building did sway for about 30 seconds."
Supermarkets stripped
Fearful citizens stripped supermarket shelves on Tuesday, prompting the government to warn against panic-buying, saying this could hurt the provision of relief supplies to quake-hit areas.
Scared Tokyo residents filled outbound trains and rushed to shops to stock up on food, water, face masks and emergency supplies amid heightening fears of radiation. At the city's main airports, hundreds of people lined up, many with children, boarding flights out.
"I'm not too worried about another earthquake. It's radiation that scares me," Masashi Yoshida, cradling his 5-month-old daughter Hana at Haneda airport, told the Reuters news agency.

The fire, which was later extinguished, broke out in the plant's number-four reactor, he said, meaning that four out of six reactors at the facility were in trouble - and temperatures were reportedly rising in the last two.Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao, reporting from Yamagata, said a no-fly zone has been established in a 30 km radius over the Fukushima plant.
Damage is 'massive'
Radiation levels later dropped at both the plant and in Tokyo, Yukio Edano, the chief government spokesman, said.
As well as the atomic emergency, Japan is struggling to cope with the enormity of the damage from Friday's record quake and the tsunami that raced across vast tracts of its northeast, destroying all before it.
Japan is the only country in the world to have experienced a nuclear attack - two bombs dropped by the US during World War II killed some 200,000 people - and citizens are gripped by fear of nuclear fallout.
"What we most fear is a radiation leak from the nuclear plant," Kaoru Hashimoto, 36, a housewife living in Fukushima city 80km northwest of the stricken plant, said.
"Many children are sick in this cold weather but pharmacies are closed. Emergency relief goods have not reached evacuation centres in the city. Everyone is anxious and wants to get out of town. But there is no more petrol."
More than 200,000 people have already been evacuated from the exclusion zone around the crippled plant.
At one shelter, a young woman holding her baby told public broadcaster NHK:  "I didn't want this baby to be exposed to radiation. I wanted to avoid that, no matter what."
Social harmony
However, even in evacuation centres filled with quake-shocked and tsunami survivors, Japan's famed emphasis on social harmony is in evidence.
From the sharing of tasks among volunteers to the neat arrangement of shoes outside the living areas, life in the shelters is orderly and peaceful.
The crisis at the ageing Fukushima plant has worsened daily since Friday's quake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems.
On Saturday an explosion blew apart the building surrounding the plant's NO.1 reactor. On Monday, a blast hit the