A website named Hiroshima Archive has set up a map  in google earth. Pictures from the aftermath of Hiroshima, including photos of some of the human beings who died that day, are laid over a Google Earth map of modern Hiroshima.  This is a project of a group comprised mainly of Japanese secondary school and college students and teachers.

 Click here to go directly to the Google earth site.

Click here for the general entry to the site, including a demo movie.

The Nagasaki Archive can be accessed via the checkbox at the top of the screen in the Hiroshima Archive.  Or, via the links in this post.

THIS WEEK!
There are TWO KEY meetings on the Jefferson toll road, however, BOTH MEETINGS ARE ON THE SAME DAY, WEDNESDAY, JULY 20. Because of this date conflict, it will be important to turn out more people and have more voices heard. You may also submit comments in writing, but the comment period is very limited, please ACT NOW! Instructions are below. Please forward this email to your friends and neighbors. Thanks, Rob

July 20
Meeting #1 – Golden’s Proposal for a Bike Path, US Fish & Wildlife
Meeting #2 – Soil Disturbance at Rocky Flats, Dept. of Energy (see below)

Meeting #1 – Golden’s Proposal for a Bike Path, US Fish & Wildlife
If you support Golden’s proposal to build a bike path, come to this meeting – US Fish & Wildlife Meeting, July 20, 2011, 5PM-8PM, Westminster City Park Recreation Center, 10455 Sheridan Blvd. Westminster, CO 80031

Golden’s Proposal: The City of Golden has submitted a bid to purchase a corridor of land, presently owned by the U.S. Department of the Interior as part of the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge, along Indiana Avenue. http://cityofgolden.net/News.asp?NewsID=867

CINQ’s position to USFW – (Please feel free to use these points in your comments)
We urge government officials to accept Golden’s proposal to build a bike path. This plan will have less impact on the Refuge, protecting important habitat and wildlife. Golden’s plan also offers the federal government more revenue than the competing proposal. A bike path also supports a more sustainable community by lessening carbon emissions, limiting noise, slowing sprawl and limiting water use. A bike path also serves as alternative transportation, which is needed in our community. Biking promotes recreation and health. Please support Golden’s Bike Path.

Cyclist- Special Message
From Margot Zallon, Plan Jeffco – Perhaps, you are unaware of the opportunity presented to our community by the proposed environmental assessment process for the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge in northern Jefferson County. This process is to review competing proposals for the use of a transportation corridor on the east side of the Refuge. The City of Golden has proposed acquiring the right-of-way for use as a regional bicycle corridor just west of Indiana Street to provide better north-south bike connectivity instead of a toll highway corridor (see the attached maps). In short, such a corridor could ultimately provide access for a bike way between Boulder County and Jefferson County. If you would think this a good notion, and would use such a corridor, please attend the US Fish and Wildlife Open House on July 20, 2011. In addition, please use the email contacts for US Fish and Wildlife, provided immediately below, to make your opinion known. They will not be taking public comment at the meeting so sending an email is the only way FWS will know your views. Most importantly, please spread the word on this important issue to your fellow cyclists.
Greetings Golden Biking Community,
From Rob Medina, CINQ – I am writing regarding a very important issue surrounding the proposal TOLL ROAD north of Golden. The City of Golden has submitted a competing bid to buy the land on the Rocky Flats Refuge, and build a BIKE PATH rather than a toll road. The primary location of Golden’s proposed bike path would be on the east edge of Rocky Flats. More info: http://cityofgolden.net/News.asp?NewsID=867 If Golden is successful, this could mean miles of added bike lanes and bike access. IT IS CRITICAL THAT THE CYCLING COMMUNITY GET INVOLVED TO SUPPORT THIS IDEA AND DEMONSTRATE A NEED FOR THIS BIKE PATH to officials with U.S. Fish & Wildlife, who control Rocky Flats. Please come to this meeting. People may also respond via email to the USFW contacts below. I have been asked by city officials to reach out to people in the community like you – your help is appreciated. Please forward this email to your customers, business associates, friends and neighbors. Thanks, Rob

NEWS RELEASE
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region, 134 Union Boulevard, Lakewood, Colorado 80228
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Host Public Meeting Regarding the Potential Expansion of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Public Scoping Comments will be accepted until July 29, 2011 Pursuant to the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge Act of 2001, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to make available a parcel of land up to 300′ wide from the existing Indiana Street right-of-way on the eastern border of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge for the sole purpose of transportation improvements. The Service has received proposals that include proposed exchanges of the transportation corridor for property known as Section 16 on the southwest corner of the existing Refuge. The Service has also received a request to transfer the 300′ wide parcel in fee for transportation purposes. The Service also proposes to expand the western edge of the approved acquisition boundary of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Expanding the refuge boundary would allow the future acquisition of environmentally important land, including critical habitat for the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse. The land within the proposed boundary also includes xeric tall grass prairie, a globally rare vegetation type, and would provide an important corridor between the Refuge and existing regional open space to the west.
The Service wants to hear from the community and will hold a meeting about the proposed boundary expansion and a potential land exchange at the Westminster City Park Recreation Center on Wednesday July 20, 2011. The meeting will be in an open house format, so you will be able to meet with Service personnel, learn about the proposal, and provide input. The meeting will be a forum for sharing ideas and concerns regarding the potential expansion of the Refuge. The Service also encourages the public to comment through letters, emails, or phone calls to the contacts listed below. Comments and information received will help determine the appropriate level of environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to expand the refuge boundary. NEPA requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision making processes by considering the effects of their proposed actions on the quality of the human environment. Whether you are an individual or a group representative, please do not hesitate to call, write, or request information on upcoming meetings with Service staff to discuss the proposal and your perspective. The service will accept public scoping comments until July 29, 2011. There will be an opportunity to comment on the resulting NEPA document in late summer/early fall of 2011.
Open House, July 20, 2011, 5PM-8PM, Westminster City Park Recreation Center, 10455 Sheridan Blvd. Westminster, CO 80031
Mike Dixon, Division of Refuge Planning, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, P.O. Box 25486, DFC, Denver, CO 80225
RockFlatsEA@fws.gov 303-236-8132
Bruce Hastings, Deputy Refuge Manager, Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, 6550 Gateway Road, Building 129, Commerce City, CO 80022
RockyFlatsEA@fws.gov 303-289-0533

Meeting #2 – Soil Disturbance at Rocky Flats, Dept.of Energy
If you are concerned with Plutonium at Rocky Flats, come to this meeting. The DOE is considering allowing soil disturbance BELOW 3 FEET WITHOUT FURTHER PUBLIC COMMENT. This change would be dangerous and irresponsible. The Jefferson Parkway would need to dig down deeper than 3 feet, which is the motivation to make this change. Digging anywhere at Rocky Flats could release contaminated dust into the air, endangering public health.

Public comment sought on Rocky Flats proposal — Public comment is being sought on proposed changes to the soil disturbance requirements at the former Rocky Flats site. The changes proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy would allow soil disturbance below 3 feet without further public comment. The City of Westminster believes that this soil should not be disturbed without significant public input and comment. A public meeting on the proposed changes will be held on Wednesday, July 20, at 6 p.m. at the DOE Legacy Management Westminster office, 11025 Dover St., Suite 1000. Comments on this proposed action are being received until Tuesday, Aug. 2, and can be emailed to: rfinfo@lm.doe.gov with ‘Rocky Flats Site Proposed Plan Comments” in the subject line

From LeRoy Moore, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center – Your help is needed to STOP construction of the Jefferson Parkway and City of Golden Bikeway, both proposed for a strip of land at Rocky Flats that is contaminated with plutonium. Urge DOE to make no land available for either project until it does an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS must determine the quantity of plutonium in soil in the area of any intended construction and the extent to which construction of either project could stir up clouds of plutonium-laden dust potentially harmful to construction workers, nearby residents and others. For more details, go to: Rocky Flats Nuclear Guardianship, http://www.rockyflatsnuclearguardianship.org/facebook/your-help-needed/

CINQ’s position to USFW – (Please feel free to use these points in your comments)
We have serious concerns about possible Plutonium contamination at Rocky Flats based on several credible studies (see www.GoTheBetterWay.org) While government contends that Rocky Flats is “clean”, it may not be. It is more than possible that the government’s past standards were/are inappropriate, and conclusions regarding risk are backed by poor science. The DOE needs to re-examine the risk by adopt more modern scientific methods to determine risk. DOE should reject a proposal to allow soil disturbance below 3 feet without further public comment. We also demand that the DOE conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to protect public health. Rocky Flats is a time bomb waiting to explode if soil is disturbed. Why risk public health?

A short while ago, the House voted to restore $35 million to the nuclear non-proliferation account in the Department of Energy.
The amendment was offered by Rep. Fortenberry (R-NE) and co-sponsored by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA).
On the House floor, the chairman and ranking members of the Energy and Water Subcommittee, Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) and Visclosky (D-IN), spoke on behalf of the amendment.
With everything greased, the amendment passed by voice vote.
The $35 million figure was chosen by our legislative leaders as the maximum politically feasible to get passed.
Modest victories in a terrible political environment in a tea part-dominated House are to be celebrated.

Peace Train for July 8, 2011
By JUDITH MOHLING

A week ago, 700 miles apart, evacuations of heavily populated areas took place as people moved to safety from possible nuclear disasters—two flooded nuclear power plants in Nebraska, Fort Calhoun and Cooper, and a raging wildfire near the nuclear lab at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Poet Robert Frost asked long ago whether the world would end by fire or ice. Maybe we need a new poem about whether the world will end by fire or flood. Both wreak havoc with nuclear processes and threaten the world. In the case of nuclear power plants, with uncontrolled nuclear reactions like the ongoing Fukushima disaster which began three months ago, or clouds of radioactive smoke in the case of wildfires burning nuclear waste; then, of course, there are the possibilities of intentional or accidental nuclear explosions which could bring an end to the world pretty quickly.

Today, the dangers to the Los Alamos labs and the flooded nuclear power plants have subsided and many people have been able to sleep in their own beds again. Although, the people of the Santa Clara Pueblo, near Los Alamos, have lost crucial and sacred land and waterways to the fire.

As climate change worsens, extreme, yet unpredictable weather may befall the earth. Tinder-dry conditions currently exist in Arizona and New Mexico, both battling the largest wildfires in their histories. Many forests and grasslands are parched. In some areas there has been complete destruction of ecosystems and deaths of countless wildlife. Yet, extreme snowfall, melting and runoff in Montana, for example, create flood conditions along the mighty Missouri and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries.

The mix of extreme climate changes around the planet plus nuclear weapons, nuclear waste and nuclear power could very easily be a lethal mix. Add to that a subtle yet extremely powerful factor—government secrecy and hesitance to reveal the full truth about anything nuclear, not only in the US, but in all the nuclear countries or the nuclear- wannabe countries– and you’ve got disasters waiting to happen.

What to do? Demand open, transparent sharing of information from government entities. My bet is that as the situations worsen, true democratic processes and full education of the populations of the world about the problems that humans in their blind arrogance have created, will be the only thing that will save us. We all need to be part of the solutions.

‘DUTCH TREAT’ B R U N C H
WITH
DAVID BARSAMIAN
HIROSHIMA TO FUKUSHIMA
and the nukes go on & on & on & on & on & on

Saturday, June 25, 11:00 AM to 1:00
Mercury Cafe
2199 California Street, Denver

THE COLORADO COALITION FOR THE PREVENTION OF NUCLEAR WAR
THE COLORADOCOALITION.ORG
ROCKY MOUNTAIN PEACE & JUSTICE CENTER RMPJC.ORG
303/447-9635

Read Guardian Article on Common Dreams http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/07-1
or http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/08/fukushima-nuclear-plant-melt-through

Molten nuclear fuel in three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant is likely to have burned through pressure vessels, not just the cores, Japan has said in a report in which it also acknowledges it was unprepared for an accident of the severity of Fukushima.

It is the first time Japanese authorities have admitted the possibility that the fuel suffered “melt-through” – a more serious scenario than a core meltdown.

The report, which is to be submitted to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said fuel rods in reactors No 1, 2 and 3 had probably not only melted, but also breached their inner containment vessels and accumulated in the outer steel containment vessels.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), says it believes the molten fuel is being cooled by water that has built up in the bottom of the three reactor buildings.

The report includes an apology to the international community for the nuclear crisis – the world’s worst since Chernobyl in 1986 – and expresses “remorse that this accident has raised concerns around the world about the safety of nuclear power generation”.

The prime minister, Naoto Kan, said: “Above all, it is most important to inform the international community with thorough transparency in order for us to regain its confidence in Japan.”

The report comes a day after Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the amount of radiation that leaked from Fukushima Daiichi in the first week of the accident may have been more than double that initially estimated by Tepco.

The 750-page report, compiled by Japan’s emergency nuclear task force, concedes that the country was wrongfooted by the severity of the accident, which occurred after the plant was struck by waves more than 14 metres high following the earthquake on 11 March.

“We are taking very seriously the fact that consistent preparation for severe accidents was insufficient,” the report said. “In light of the lessons learned from the accident, Japan has recognised that a fundamental revision of its nuclear safety preparedness and response is inevitable.”

The nuclear task force’s head, Goshi Hosono, said Tepco had failed to adequately protect plant workers early on in the crisis, and had provided inadequate information about radiation leaks.

About 7,800 workers had been involved in the battle to stabilise the plant as of late May, the report said. While their average exposure dose was well within safe limits, “a certain number” may have been exposed to more than 250 millisieverts per year, the maximum allowable dose under revised government guidelines for Fukushima workers.

The report acknowledged that bureaucratic red tape, and the division of responsibilities across several government agencies, had hampered the response to the accident.

It said the government would separate the country’s nuclear safety watchdog from the trade and industry ministry, a recommendation made earlier this month by a team of experts from the IAEA.

The trade and industry minister, Banri Kaieda, said Japan would share all available data and co-operate with the IAEA. “Our country bears a serious responsibility to provide data to the international community with maximum transparency, and to actively contribute to nuclear safety,” he said.

The most urgent problem facing workers at Fukushima Daiichi is how to deal with vast quantities of highly radioactive water that has accumulated in reactor buildings and basements and in ditches.

The estimated 100,000 tonnes of contaminated liquid – runoff from water used to douse overheating reactors – is hampering efforts to repair the plant’s cooling systems.

Tepco has said it hopes to have a system in place by the middle of the month to remove radioactive substances from the water, enabling it to be reused to cool reactors.

So something in the BASEMENT of reactor #1 is hot enough to make steam AND 3000 and 4000 millisieverts? Hummmm… -jw

(Excerpt from World Nuclear News)

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS-Two_Fukushima_workers_overexposed-0606115.html

Steam and radiation

Steam has been found to be escaping from the basement of unit 1 of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant into the first floor of its reactor building. Radiation levels in the vicinity are very high.

Tepco reported that a remote-controlled robot surveying the first floor of the reactor building of unit 1 discovered the steam leak on 3 June. The steam – coming through a hole in the floor through which a pipe passes – is thought to be from water at a temperature of some 50°C that has built up in the basement of the reactor building.

Radiation levels in the area near the leaking steam were found to be between 3000 and 4000 millisieverts – the highest level detected in the air at the plant so far. However, Tepco said that it does not expect the high radiation level to affect ongoing work in the unit as it is confined to a limited section of the reactor building, where workers do not yet need to enter.

The discovery of the steam and high radiation level further confirms that the reactor pressure vessel and containment vessel have been damaged by molten fuel in the unit.

Tepco said that the pressure inside the reactor vessel of unit 1 is now only slightly higher than the outside atmospheric pressure. Measurements from a new pressure gauge installed on 3 June showed that the internal pressure was just 1.26 atmospheres. The utility said that this proves that air inside the reactor is escaping. It also plans to install new gauges at units 2 and 3, where large-scale fuel melts are also suspected, to check their pressures.

A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) official, testifying at a subcommittee of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) which is overseeing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe review, testified that the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant — just seven miles to the south of Daiichi — barely survived the tsunami that devastated its sister plant up the coast. Dr. John E. Kelly, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactor Technologies at DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, presented a powerpoint entitled “DOE Response to Fukushima Dai-Ichi Accident” at the NRC Headquarters in Rockville, Maryland on May 26th. As he discussed the “Major root cause of the damage” to Fukushima Daiichi’s Units 1 to 4, Dr. Kelly mentioned in passing that a Japanese colleague, a Dr. Amato, reported to him that the tsunami was actually worse at Daini (site of four Tokyo Electric Power Company reactors) than at Daiichi, but the Daini nuclear site is fortunately at a higher elevation than the six reactor complex at Daiichi. However, Daini still lost all its emergency diesel generators due to the tsunami’s impact. But fortunately, Daini did not completely lose its connection to the functioning grid — a single offsite power line survived the earthquake and tsunami, thus keeping electricity flowing to Daini’s cooling pumps on its reactor cores and high-level radioactive waste storage pools. As bad as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant catastrophe is, it could be so much worse, if Daini had been plunged into long-term station blackout as well. Despite this good fortune, there have still been problems at Daini. A fire was reported at Daini on March 30; another fire was reported at Daini just today. And incredibly, a supertyphoon may now be headed to Fukushima

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said fuel rods are fully exposed in the No. 1 reactor at its stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, setting back the utility’s plan to resolve the crisis.

The water level is 1 meter (3.3 feet) below the base of the fuel assembly, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility known as Tepco, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo. Melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is still being cooled, Matsumoto said. The company doesn’t know how long the rods have been exposed.

The Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in Japan is having a potential impact on the West’s political landscape. In West Somerset, which along with neighbouring Sedgemoor, will bear the impact of the proposed Hinkley C nuclear plant, the Green party is running twice as many district council candidates as Labour and the Liberal Democrats combined. A dozen Greens will stand on May 5, compared with four Labour candidates and two Liberal Democrats, making the environmental campaigners the principal local opposition to the Conservatives.

28th April 2011

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Nuclear-issue-helps-Greens-make-inroads/article-3499098-detail/article.html