Fukushima radioactivity

Fukushima update - North American food supply poisoned along Pacific Coast

Natural News,

14 July, 2013

If you live on the West Coast of the U.S. or Canada, you may want to reconsider your water filtration method as well as how you select and prepare food. Evidently, the nightmare of Fukushima is far from over - another 16 million years to be exact. Due to the astonishingly long half-life of iodine-129, the whole ecosystem of the Pacific Coast will be contaminated pretty much forever.

Lifespan of radioactive isotopes and other trivia

Among other dangerous radioactive isotopes released from the Fukushima meltdown, iodine-129 also spewed forth from the damaged reactor. Incredibly, this isotope has a half-life of 16 million years. Essentially, the entire West Coast food supply of North America will be contaminated with radiation for unlimited generations. We have fundamentally entered into a new way of life - one that takes a giant leap toward illness, disease and heightened mortality rates.
Consider the water supply. Not only does it provide drinking water for humans and animals, but it also irrigates crops. When the supply is contaminated, it influences everything. According to a public health statement made by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR):


"Iodine in the oceans enters the air from sea spray or as iodine gases. Once in the air, iodine can combine with water or with particles in the air and can enter the soil and surface water, or land on vegetation when these particles fall to the ground or when it rains. Iodine can remain in soil for a long time because it combines with organic material in the soil. It can also be taken up by plants that grow in the soil. Cows or other animals that eat these plants will take up the iodine in the plants. Iodine that enters surface water can reenter the air as iodine gases."


The question is, does radioactive iodine spread in the same manner as its natural counterpart? Unfortunately, the answer is an unequivocal "yes." The agency continues:


"Radioactive iodine also forms naturally from chemical reactions high in the atmosphere. Most radioactive forms of iodine change very quickly (seconds to days) to stable elements that are not radioactive. However, one form, 129I, changes very slowly (millions of years), and its levels build up in the environment."


Before packing up and relocating to Antarctica, a few options are available that can drastically reduce exposure to these harmful elements.

Protect and detoxify

Here are several precautions that can help shield individuals from a radioactive food supply:


- View all fish and crustaceans from the Pacific Ocean as tainted.

- Always use filtered water for cooking and drinking.

- Pay attention to the origin of dairy.

- Wash any produce thoroughly with natural soap and rinse with purified water.
- Avoid meat from contaminated regions (including wild game).

Another level of defense is explained in the article, Remove radiation from your produce with Calcium Bentonite Clay:

"You can add Calcium Bentonite Clay to your milk and drinking water if you're concerned about the possibility of contamination there as well. Add approximately 1 ounce of liquid Calcium Bentonite Clay to a gallon of organic raw milk or water. 

Some people prefer to let the clay settle to the bottom of the liquid and discard that portion, while others prefer to shake it up and drink them together. Either is fine."

All in all, it truly is a sad state of affairs when the idea of donning a hazmat suit simply to handle our food is not as outrageous as it once had been.


Sources for this article include:

http://www.psmag.com/science/an-iodine-chaser-3523/
http://hpschapters.org/northcarolina/NSDS/iodine.pdf
http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/chart/decaysearchdirect.jsp?nuc=129I&unc=nds
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://hpschapters.org/northcarolina/NSDS/iodine.pdf
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts158.pdf
http://www.naturalnews.com


About the author:


Carolanne enthusiastically believes if we want to see change in the world, we need to be the change. As a nutritionist, natural foods chef and wellness coach, Carolanne has encouraged others to embrace a healthy lifestyle of organic living, gratefulness and joyful orientation for over 13 years. Through her website www.Thrive-Living.net she looks forward to connecting with other like-minded people who share a similar vision.

Dangers of Chernobyl still present 2 years later

25 years to the day and they are still working to somehow contain this. I wonder what the headlines will read about Fukushima 25 years from now? Will we even have headlines? -- MCR

Ukraine struggles to complete Chernobyl containment shelter

RT,

26 April, 2012

Twenty-five years on, the dangers of Chernobyl have in no way been confined to the past. On the eve of the tragic anniversary, Ukraine is desperately seeking money to complete a new containment shelter over the remains of the destroyed reactor.

International donors have pledged more than half-a-billion euros, but that is still short of what is needed to make the site of the worst nuclear accident in history secure for a century.

Japan’s ongoing struggle to contain the Fukushima disaster is fuelling a growing anxiety over nuclear energy safety. The last time the world was this scared was in the shadow of the Chernobyl reactor explosion in 1986.

“This latest accident demonstrates that despite the great progress made in the last 25 years, more needs to be done to ensure that the 'safety first' approach becomes fully entrenched among nuclear power plant operators, governments and regulators," IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said at an international conference in Kiev.

Japan hopes to seal the site within nine months. But back in the days of Chernobyl, a quicker solution was needed.

Shutting the gaping hole of the exploded reactor was the immediate solution for a deadly mistake. Scientists were quick to react to the unfolding catastrophe and managed to build a steel and concrete structure over the devastated power station, protecting Europe from the further spread of radiation.

The sarcophagus was built in 1986, just months after the disaster. Back then, experts said it would last for 20 years – until 2006. Now, given numerous cracks in its walls, there are fears that the structure could soon collapse. Experts say should this happen it may cause serious danger and a major threat.

If the sarcophagus did collapse, the whole of the European continent could be contaminated by the radioactive fuel which is still thought to lie under the sarcophagus.

A new arch is being built by French company Navarco. Work has been in progress for months, but it only recently became clear that this billion-dollar project lacks financing. A week before the disaster’s 25th anniversary, Kiev managed to attract an additional half-a-billion euros in aid from the international community at a donor conference.

“We have now been granted a real chance to complete the new shelter by the year 2015,” Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich has said.

Experts are confident it could even happen quicker, in just two years. And that the new protective layer will last for generations.

“The lifetime of the new confinement would be 100 years. This is enough time to develop new technology for storing radioactive materials and disposing of radioactive waste,” says Yulia Marusich, a Chernobyl NPP worker.

Whether that means that Chernobyl could one day be dismantled under the new dome is unclear. But as Japan’s nuclear crisis keeps the planet on alert, there is now a new focus on ensuring Chernobyl’s dark past can be kept where at bay.

Read an eyewitness account about what happens near the ruins of the Chernobyl power plant in Aleksey Yaroshevsky’s blog. He visited the site recently to film a documentary about the catastrophe and its consequences.

Twenty-five years since the catastrophe, the 30km radius exclusion zone around the Chernobyl plant is still unsuitable for living. The radiation levels vary across the area. In the so-called “Red Forest” – the area burnt by the radiation wave after the explosion – the radiation level probes show 3,500 micro-roentgens per hour. Levels of 2,500 micro-roentgens per hour can be measured over the rooftop of the tallest building in the town of Pripyat. These levels are so high that it is not advisable for people to be there for more than 10-15 minutes, otherwise they might exhibit the first stages of radiation sickness. At the same time, there are areas with radiation levels even lower than in Kiev or Moscow.

Memorial services for the victims of the Chernobyl disaster are being held across the country. One is underway in Kiev, held by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

President Medvedev awards Chernobyl heroes

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev awarded 16 Russians who worked at the Chernobyl power plant after it was hit by the explosion, mitigating the consequences of the blast. The ceremony took place in Kremlin Palace on April 25.

In his speech at the ceremony, Medvedev stressed that the state should never cease providing social and healthcare support to the people who eliminated the Chernobyl radiation threat. Moreover, he underlined that widows whose husbands had died in the result of those attempts should not be deprived of state’s support, Interfax news agency reports.

President Medvedev also criticized the Soviet government for providing too little information to the community, when the Chernobyl disaster occurred. "The state did not have enough courage to acknowledge the event,” he said. “It looked very strange in the media coverage: the newspaper Pravda had a tiny article in the small print on the last page. It took a while to learn what exactly had happened,” Medvedev said as cited by Itar-Tass news agency.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be attending to commemoration services in Chernobyl on April 26. The patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, will hold service there in the night which will mark the explosion.