Last September, two eminent scientists visited the Dance Palace to update us on their research on radiation impacts of the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan. Dr. Tim Mousseau reported that population decline and mutations in birds, insects and animals are already occurring in Japan similar to those in Chernobyl. Dr. Ken Buesseler found radioactive cesium from Fukushima in ocean samples from British Columbia, Canada, 100 miles offshore from Eureka, Calif., and one mile offshore of Del Mar, Calif., near San Diego.
After his lecture, Dr. Mousseau continued his wildlife research in Fukushima, but he reported his team’s work was hampered when typhoon Etau dumped up to 21 inches of rain in 24 hours, causing severe flooding.
Radioactive soil from higher elevations washed over previously uncontaminated land and re-contaminated other areas. Flooding overwhelmed over-taxed drainage pumps of Tokyo Electric Power Company, which admitted releasing contaminated water from the on-going disaster site. Huge additional amounts of intense radioactivity poured into the Pacific and are now on the way to our coast, along with the constant daily leaks of at least 300 tons of radioactive water.
The first authoritative report on the serious implications of the flood’s impact came from former nuclear industry vice president turned whistleblower and educator Arnie Gundersen, now the chief nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Energy Education, based in Vermont. On Nov. 21 at the Dance Palace, Gundersen will discuss the effects of radioactive material in the Pacific and on the coast of California.
Gundersen said, “For the next three hundred years, events like this typhoon will reoccur until all the radioactivity released during the Fukushima Daiichi disaster is finally washed entirely into the Pacific Ocean, not just from the Fukushima Daiichi site but from all the tributaries and rivers in the mountains that enter the Pacific Ocean.”