Image via WikipediaMany reactors or built on or near fault lines !
Nuclear power cannot be used until we can effectively process the waste and we have not yet come even close to this. Las Vegas were Yucca mountain was going to be the Nation’s nuclear waste dump. So I learned all about the costs and how ineffective we were. The solution was going to be shipping very dangerous, radioactive contaminates across our beautiful country passing innocent pregnant women and children who would receive unsafe levels of exposure from sitting in their cars next to a truckload. Then we were going to put it all in one place, deep underground in a geologically unsound cavern we were digging with enormous machines. Did anyone but me see a movie script in this? Luckily that answer was no and that law did not pass.
A Hapless Fukushima Clean-Up Effort
The lack of an effective emergency crisis management has underscored how poorly prepared TEPCO and indeed the Japanese authorities were for a nuclear disaster. Engineers seem helpless in their efforts to cope with radioactive water and workers aren’t even getting proper meals.
When the first reactor sustained damage in faraway Japan, experts in France, a country that relies heavily on nuclear energy, immediately made a number of special robots available. The machines can be operated by remote control in places where radiation levels are too high for human beings to work safely.
The high-tech helpers have been standing at the Chateauroux airport, boxed up and ready for shipment, for the last two weeks.
The Japanese had initially turned down the French offer, because it was coming from a company that is partially owned by Areva, the world’s largest nuclear supplier. They felt that the government in Paris should have offered them the robots instead.
Japan, a leader in the development and use of robots, was also reluctant to accept offers of machinery from the United States and Germany, and even the equipment it did accept hasn’t been put to use yet. But anyone listening to the reports coming from emergency workers quickly realizes that the Japanese need more than robots. In fact, the workers at the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant lack some of the most basic things, like radiation suits, clean underwear and hot meals.
The roughly 400 men risking their lives to prevent the situation from deteriorating even further at the wrecked plant sleep in a building on the plant grounds. They lie on the floor in hallways, in stairwells and even in front of the clogged toilets. Each man has been given a blanket.
There are two meals a day: rationed biscuits in the morning and instant rice and Caloriemate, an energy supplement wafer, in the evening. Initially, each worker received only one bottle of water a day. Now they receive two. The men on whose shoulders the fate of the entire country of Japan rests are not even being given fresh underwear. “Everyone is dreaming of a cup of tea,” one worker told the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri.
Indoor air–specific recommendations
World Health Organization Recommendations to try to save 1.9 million lives each year in the developing world
* Investigate effective interventions and implementation methods for sustainable and financially viable changes to reduce indoor air pollution.
* Encourage the substitution of solid fuels in the home by cleaner and more efficient fuels and technology.
* Encourage the use of improved stoves to lower pollution levels in poor rural communities where access to alternative fuels is limited and biomass remains the most practical fuel.
* Improve ventilation in homes, schools and the working environment.
* Change user behaviour (e.g. drying wood before use).
* Prevent and remediate problems related to dampness and mould in housing to decrease the risk of exposure to hazardous microbes.
* Eliminate or reduce tobacco smoking indoors. Prohibit smoking in public buildings.
* Promote risk reduction strategies for indoor radon exposure.
There are also known safety measures to be taken with coal mining. (5000 deaths per year). Improved ventilation, prevention of gas and dust buildup. Shifting away from coal usage to safer energy sources.
World Health Organization Recommendations to try to save 1.9 million lives each year in the developing world
* Investigate effective interventions and implementation methods for sustainable and financially viable changes to reduce indoor air pollution.
* Encourage the substitution of solid fuels in the home by cleaner and more efficient fuels and technology.
* Encourage the use of improved stoves to lower pollution levels in poor rural communities where access to alternative fuels is limited and biomass remains the most practical fuel.
* Improve ventilation in homes, schools and the working environment.
* Change user behaviour (e.g. drying wood before use).
* Prevent and remediate problems related to dampness and mould in housing to decrease the risk of exposure to hazardous microbes.
* Eliminate or reduce tobacco smoking indoors. Prohibit smoking in public buildings.
* Promote risk reduction strategies for indoor radon exposure.
There are also known safety measures to be taken with coal mining. (5000 deaths per year). Improved ventilation, prevention of gas and dust buildup. Shifting away from coal usage to safer energy sources.
Disaster in Japan exposes supply chain crisis
Companies around the world often rely on small networks of suppliers that may be thousands of miles away. A good number of those suppliers are in Japan.
Already, quake-related shortages of automotive electronic sensors made by Hitachi’s Automotive Systems business have been blamed for halting or cutting production of vehicles in Germany, Spain, France and Shreveport, La.
The crisis also is expected to slash the supply of some vehicles, such as Toyota’s Prius, and contribute to higher passenger car prices in the U.S.
The likelihood of more disruptions has touched off a scramble for alternative suppliers. And it is almost certain to lead to a rethinking of a global production and logistics system in which a natural disaster in a small part of Japan’s industrial base can have such broad effects around the world.
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