Fukushima hires “kamikaze clean-up workers”

The plot is always the same: a company -community or lobby- perceives a threat to its interests and, as a defensive response, resorts to hush up the matter in a clear example of obscurantism most of the times. It is as if denying-hiding the extent of a problem, and distracting the international public opinion, the problem would solve in the ocean. But problems do not usually get solved spontaneously, rather the opposite they get worse when there are no clear and rapid actions to stop them.

This initial assertion may be applied to the Fukushima ‘affaire’. In recent days we have known more about the aforementioned nuclear soap-opera of bitter flavour: the power plant –or its intermediaries- is hiring beggars to transform them into kamikaze-cleaners of the radioactive contamination that was released (is released or will be released) by the nuclear plant.

Once again the story gets repeated. The unfortunate poor cleaners will perform as liquidators who, liquidating and liquidating the radioactive poison immanent in the area, will run their own liquidation by a stingy bunch of yens. While there are needy, misinformed or simply naïve people, bad managers will always find fresh cannon fodder to minimize the scope of their incompetence dyed of selfishness and disregard for the lives of others.

A few hot meals

The land of the rising sun is not free from ghettos of poverty with its inevitable legions of homeless. The inventors of the Just-In-Time (JIT) have discovered among their local poor the logistics solution to their problems. That’s taking advantage of resources, at bargain prices, just in time!

The Fukushima kamikaze-cleaners will earn less than 80 euros a day for their reckless ‘performance’, and will have to bear the expenses of their food and lodgment. Scarce economic profit for such an unusual risk! For a period of time which cannot be determined this new batch of liquidators in liquidation in the purest Chernobyl-style will be able, at least, to eat hot. Some of them even will behave as grateful stomachs as they found the ‘exit’ to their hardship. But the vast majority –we fear- will die victim of that modern pestilence industrially discovered by Madame Curie.

While there are needy, misinformed or simply naïve people, bad managers will always find fresh cannon fodder to minimize the scope of their incompetence

The cesium in water... and CSR only as a showcase

Fukushima’s errors leaking will not be completely known because concealment is the norm. So we will not know neither the number, nor the extent and propagation medium of the leaks. Nevertheless, there are evidences that are hard to ignore: cesium 137 continues its unstoppable trip to the American continental coasts. On its way and final destination it will alter the biology of living beings –to say it euphemistically- in the large ‘kitchen-garden’ of the future that is the sea.

Perhaps the future evolution of the planet will be mutagenesis of species, including humans? It is not a remote likelihood, since we feed from the others… and bio-accumulate the toxins that we ingest.

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is a policy that looks great on companies’ memorandum reports or their websites where they release their achievements. However, it is a policy hard to implement coherently, especially when companies have to deal with any crisis. 

Tepco, operator of Fukushima, is offering its grotesque reinterpretation of what is its responsibility’s feeling (RSC) towards the world.

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Muslyumovo, paradigm of the unsustainability

Much has been written about the Siberian village of Muslyumovo. It is believed to be the most polluted place in the world, or the second Chernobyl. We cannot close this round of nuclear nonsensical without providing some arguments for thinking.

At first glance, Muslyumovo is a remote and unknown place of idyllic seeming. Nothing farther from reality. It stands beside the Techa River, which gives life to it, and simultaneously provides the death. The river carries the lethal radioactive load which, for decades, has released the plant of Mayak, miles up the river course.

The planet and our children, and vice versa

Probably the greatest danger of nuclear power is not the power itself, but the human being and his attitude. As only reflection we propose a double question: What planet are we leaving to our children? What children are we leaving to our planet? Probably the classical ecology only raises the first question, whose solution is not easy. In any case, if we want a healthful planet and a sustainable exploitation of it, we must begin to change the mind of the emerging generations. We have to properly educate the children that we are leaving to our planet to take care of it. In other words, let’s stop worrying about the planet and instead let’s take care of the education of those who will manage it. If the flame of common sense and sustainability starts, we will avoid repeating mistakes that are already part of the recent history.

We need to spread the testimonial of Ramzis Fayzullin. Due to the exposure of his parents, he was born with hydrocephaly and severe health problems. His message was summarized in the slogan “Please, think about our future”. Ramzis has been a victim of unsustainability. Those responsible for his mishap shouldn’t ignore the complaint of this young man. “I want to be as anybody else. I do not want kids like me”, he claimed saddened as his companions ridiculed his look and the girls rejected him.

If the flame of common sense and sustainability starts, we will avoid repeating mistakes that are already part of the recent history. We need to spread the testimonial of Ramzis Fayzullin

Dark chronology

-In the 40s the Mayak plant was built, it supplied the plutonium for the first Soviet atomic bombs, and started the dumping of radioactive waste into the Techa River. The area would also become a graveyard of imported nuclear waste.

-In 1957, the explosion of a tank of waste contaminated a populated area of 1.5 million people. It was the worst disaster before Chernobyl accident.

-Ten years later (1967) a drought released the radioactive dust deposited in a lake near Mayak.

-In the nineties the population begins to know what was concealed for more than four decades, and that explained the litany of death and destruction in the form of “special illnesses” in the euphemism of officials. Nevertheless a model of responsible management was not launched.

-Between 2001 and 2004 up to 40 million cubic meters of radioactive sludge ended up in the radioactive landfill that is the Techa River. Even today, in its bank, the radiation exceeds 1,000 times the levels taken as normal. The locals still keep living -and dying- in a sewer-river that once was a source of life for Muslyumovo.

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