Last winter, I went to Hiroshima. In the museum, I remember seeing the numerous copies of letters to governments pleading to end nuclear testing and development that have been written by Hiroshima mayors every time a nuclear weapons test has been done. The letters fill two walls, yet the testing and deployment goes on and on. Incredibly, the mayors persist in hope of an end to nuclear armament and energy.
I also learned that most of the victims of the direct hit hear the epicenter of the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima killed more Koreans than Japanese people. Thirty-thousand Korean slave laborers were working in the armament plants for Japan in Hiroshima at the time of the blast. The museum displays informed me that Hiroshima had been chosen because no American forces were there, among other reasons.
I live in the southeastern region of the Republic of Korea. The Gori Nuclear Power Plant feeds the heavy industry zone and the city of Ulsan just north of it, and the great container port of Busan to the south. It is very old having been constructed in the 60s, and was due to be shut down some three years ago, but was given a life extension of 10 years while a replacement is being built. Not only is it quite old and therefore especially prone to accidents and leaks, there is no doubt that the Gori plant, like all other nuclear power plants, is polluting the environment.
The Gori plant was built on the coast just like the Fukushima Daiichi plant was so that ocean water could easily be used to cool down the reactors. What has been happening to that contaminated water? It has been channeled into the ground and pumped out to the sea. Remarkably, no-one talks about this. The governments at all levels busily promote the local fishery and its products and the recreational beaches. Meanwhile, an important food supply bearing such local staples as anchovies, crabs, seaweed, and eels has been poisoned , and tourists and pleasure-seekers have been happily immersing themselves in the contaminated waters at major beach areas for decades.
Recently, I met an activist who's personal story motivated him to advocate for better protection from the risks of nuclear energy and I admired his dogged persistence and unwavering passion for the cause. He has been sending me some materials about his campaigning in the past few days. I realized that it was close to the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so I used his material to write an article calling for action against nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. It is pasted below here.
Act Now to Ban Nuclear Weapons and Power Plants!
Another anniversary of the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is passing yet nuclear proliferation has not been curbed despite decades of persistent activism around the world. Accidents, breakdowns and threat of nuclear weaponry deployment do not seem to faze the moguls of the nuclear power and war industries and the politicians who serve them.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant mega-disaster is not over. Reuters Press (video dated August 5, 2013 by reporter Lily Grimes) and Fukushima update websites such as fukushimaupdate.com (August 5, 2013) are reporting today that the infamous private owner of the plant, TEPCO, has released more information about continuing leaks of contaminated water. They now say that underground pools of radioactive water are close to breaching the underground barrier that prevents it from seeping into the sea.
The risks of nuclear power and threat of nuclear weapons are global problems. Countries like the US and France have huge stockpiles of nuclear warheads around the world totalling around 8,000. Though the United States government will not disclose whether and where its nuclear weapons are located, it is reasonable to assume that many are located at home and at overseas bases such as South Korea, the Philippines, the Caribbean, and Europe while war exercises and aggressive campaigns go on.
What is more, many countries, and many of the same countries that also produce and store nuclear weapons, have come to be dependent on electricity produced by nuclear power plants. Stephen Comley Sr. and the organization he founded, “We the People” (WTF), for example, have been reporting on the risks to health and safety that such plants pose for over 25 years.
When the Chernobyl disaster occurred in 1986, Comley was running a nursing home near the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire, USA. Inquiring about the state evacuation plans, staff at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission told him to give bedridden residents potassium iodine and abandon them. Finding this answer unconscionable and digging deeper, experts consistently indicated to him that evacuation plans were inadequate. He started his whistleblower organization to raise awareness and campaign for better protection. His continued research has uncovered a range of serious problems surrounding the use of nuclear energy.
WTF put forward a petition in 2010 that listed the following issues (News Leader, April 20, 2011) regarding all nuclear power plants. It addressed counterfeit and substandard or defective parts, a lack of adequate evacuation planning, reduced inspection and quality assurance standards, the streamlining of licensing and license renewals, and poor storage of radioactive waste.
Despite all the information gathered and urgent appeals over the decades, legislation and regulations remain lame, if not weaker than before. Consider this example. President Obama campaigned to tighten regulation in response to Illinois residents complaining of leaks at a nuclear plant run by the Exelon Corporation (New York Times, February 8, 2008). However, he rewrote his original proposed bill by removing restrictive language and replacing it with guidelines. After Obama was first elected, this watered down bill meandered through committees and eventually failed to be passed.
The problem of the nuclear power industry shows how the economic and political concerns of the capitalist classes and the politicians who serve them are all about profits and ambition. Their economic and political aims override decent living standards for the people to the point where they clearly state that the elderly, infirm and disabled are expendable in situations of disasters. They display little sincere concern for the peoples’ health and safety, and a negligible desire for peace. In fact, it is they who threaten the people around the world with a nuclear holocaust if all nations do not behave the way they want and play their game.
All concerned citizens should help educate and agitate about the nuclear danger. They must unite and rally together for disarmament and demilitarization, working for and demanding genuine and lasting global peace so that a better standard of safety and living conditions can be established for all.
By Barbara Waldern
Note: Barbara Waldern is a resident professor of English in South Korea and the founding member of a teachers’ support network called TEA-KOR, which is a member of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles.
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