Japan’s Nuclear Armageddon and the Experts. By Mina Hamilton, Dissident Voice, 3/16/11. At 4:45 PM more grim news from Japan. Yet another fire breaks out at a Fukushima reactor. Searing flames shoot to the sky. Radiation levels are too high for workers to get close enough to put out the inferno. Even so, maybe, this fire will be doused. What’s next?

Coming hard on the heels of a monster earthquake and devastating tsunami, the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan is more than heart-breaking. The magnitude of the tragedy is truly unfathomable.

Who has not groaned seeing pictures of the tsunami-claimed bodies? Who has not wept seeing thousands and thousands of Japanese mourning the loss of family, loved ones and homes? Who does not wince at the desperate refugees without water or food packed into freezing shelters?

Now add to the untold miseries multiple reactor core meltdowns? And a fuel pool meltdown? Plus, a radioactive plume heading out over the Pacific to deposit its toxic load in the ocean and its rich fisheries? Not to mention the threat of the wind shifting and carrying the radioactivity towards Tokyo? Korea?

It is understandable for those of us watching from a distance to feel hopeless. What can I do? Who doesn’t want to turn off the TV, climb under the covers – and leave the unfolding disaster in the hands of the experts?

If there’s one lesson this catastrophe should convey: don’t leave it to the experts.

These experts got us here in the first place. One example: what the industry and most media commentators refer to as “spent fuel.”

“Spent” fuel? What’s that?

“Spent” is an industry-euphemism. It implies something harmless, wasted or used up. Quite the opposite.

Spent fuel is irradiated fuel: fuel that has been irradiated inside a nuclear reactor’s core. After removal from the reactor, this fuel is massively contaminated with radioactive elements and must be stored in giant pools.

On March 15 the New York Times said these fuel pools “could pose an even greater danger” than the reactors melting down.

An even greater danger? Isn’t a core meltdown as bad as it gets?

Alas, a fuel pool meltdown could be worse than a reactor core meltdown. Much worse. This is because fuel pools contain far more radioactivity than that which is inside a reactor core. Unfortunately, at Fukushima we may get both types of meltdowns.

Robert Alvarez, formerly of the US Department of Energy and now at the Institute of Policy Studies, provided insight into this potential nuclear Armageddon. In a recent blog Alvarez states the fuel in each of the pools at the Fukushima complex has 5 to 10 times the radioactivity of the fuel inside one reactor core. And much of this radioactive material is the highly toxic and long-lived radionuclide, cesium-137. See http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/meltdowns_grow_more_likely_at_the_fukushima_reactors.)

Another problem: Unlike the reactor cores, which have a hefty, six-inch thick steel containment vessel, the fuel pools at Fukushima are in unhardened and therefore highly vulnerable concrete structures. The roof of one of these structures has been completely demolished in at least one of the stricken reactors, Unit 4.

Why is irradiated fuel sitting in pools? (They’re sort of like swimming pools, though considerably deeper. About 40 feet long, 40 feet wide and 45 feet deep.)

After removal from the reactor core, the irradiated fuel is fiendishly hot. The fuel is so hot it will cause the water it is immersed in to boil – if the water is not cooled. What if fuel pool’s cooling systems fail? Disaster. If the water is not cooled for a certain number of days or weeks, the water will boil off. Next, the fuel can catch fire, releasing its toxic load to the environment.

Given the repeated explosions at the Fukushima reactors and the latest fire at Unit 4, this count-down to an irradiated fuel pool meltdown appears to be underway.

Pools of water hanging up in the air? With no back-up water circulation, no back-up generators? Pools not in hardened or sealed containments? Pools stuffed to the gills with extraordinarily toxic materials that are now threatening the health and safety of thousands of already suffering Japanese citizens?

Over the last 30 years, repeatedly citizens have challenged the safety of irradiated fuel pools and repeatedly the nuclear industry and its experts have said, no problem.

Yes, right now, we all need to do whatever we can to assist the Japanese people.

For the longer term, however, let’s remember the nuclear industry and its “experts” got us to this extremely dangerous moment. An informed, organized and determined citizenry is the only way to free us of our dependency upon this exceedingly dangerous and unforgiving energy source.

~ Mina Hamilton is a writer based in New York City. She is a Research Associate at Radioactive Waste Management Associates. Formerly she was the Co-founder and Director of the Sierra Club’s Radioactive Waste Campaign, an organizing and educational program on the hazards of the nuclear fuel cycle. She frequently writes about nuclear issues. Mina can be
reached at minaham@aol.com.

For Russia, Global Warming Benefits 'Outweigh' Negatives. By Natalya Krainova, Moscow Times, 12/2/10. “Even permafrost will retreat thanks to global warming, but not this week. Global warming in the next 40 years will allow Russian authorities to save on central heating, increase agricultural production and extend sea navigation in the north, a leading Russian climatologist told a Russian-German conference recently. But authorities will have to fork out money to reconstruct several big Siberian and Far Eastern cities to prevent them from collapsing as a result of a warmer climate, Vladimir Klimenko, head of Laboratory of Global Power Engineering Problems at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute told the conference co-organized by Alexander von Humbolt Foundation. However, ‘the reduction of heating alone outweighs all the negative results [of the global warming] by many times,’ Klimenko said. If the money saved through reducing heating ‘is spent sensibly, then something can be achieved,’ he said.”

Spate of Natural Disasters Spurs Record Relief Spending for U.N. By Nathanial Gronewold, Greenwire, 12/6/10. “The U.N. system will spend more than $3 billion this year responding to natural disasters… Most of the cash -- believed to be a record amount spent by the world body on natural disasters -- went to emergency efforts for floods in Pakistan and the earthquake in Haiti, but the United Nations mobilized relief in two dozen other countries whose miseries mostly went unnoticed in the international press… The funds were divided among multiple U.N. agencies, governments and private relief groups managing operations in at least 24 countries enduring earthquakes, floods, droughts and even heavy snowfall.”

Subarctic Wildfires a 'Runaway Climate Change' Risk. ByMarlowe Hood, AFP, 12/5/12. “Global warming is driving forest fires in northern latitudes to burn more frequently and fiercely, contributing to the threat of runaway climate change, according to a study released Dec.5. Increased intensity of fires in Alaska's vast interior over the last decade has changed the region from a sink to a source of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas most responsible for heating up the planet, the study found. On balance, in other words, boreal forests in the northern hemisphere may now soak up less of the heat-trapping gas than they give off. The bulk of the released CO2 comes not from the burning trees, but from what is in the ground. ‘Most of what fuels a boreal fire is plant litter, moss and organic matter in surface soils,’ said Merritt Turetsky, a professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada and lead author of the study. The findings are worrisome, he said, because about half of the world's soil carbon is trapped in northern permafrost and peatlands. ‘This is carbon that has accumulated in ecosystems a little bit at a time for thousands of years, but is being released very rapidly.’ While the study, published in Nature Geoscience, focused on Alaska's 18.5 million hectares (45 million acres) of forests, its conclusions likely apply to huge expanses of wilderness in Siberia, Canada and northern Europe as well.”

Scale of Pakistan Flood Continues to Overwhelm Relief Efforts. By Nathanial Gronewold, ClimateWire, 10/15/10. “Government and U.N. officials say the 2010 flood crisis in Pakistan was partly caused by climate change, though the vast extent of the flooding has also exposed how the human activities in the developing world are making it more vulnerable to extreme weather events. At the same time, the spotty relief and recovery operation in Pakistan provides a glimpse of how greater frequency of such natural disasters -- something predicted by many climate scientists -- could fray the capacity of the world to cope. With some 20 million people affected and at least 7 million left homeless, aid workers from Pakistan and abroad are now openly saying that it is unlikely everyone will get enough support. Many will be left to completely fend for themselves, though exactly how many is unknown, experts admit. The recovery effort in the north also lays bare the limitations that large international aid groups may face when responding to future crises in relatively unstable countries… The fourth in a four-part series on Pakistan's flood disaster. Click here for part one, here for part two and here for part three.”

Are Pakistan Relief Efforts a Training Exercise for Climate Change Disasters? By Nathanial Gronewold, ClimateWire, 10/14/10. “Some 12 weeks since the onset of devastating flash floods left a half-million Pakistanis stranded, U.S. forces are still actively assisting the Pakistani military with delivering aid to populations in need… U.S. embassy officials say they expect troops to be here doing this work until at least November. The troops involved say they have all trained heavily in disaster relief work since enlisting, but many also admit that they never expected to actually be putting the training to work, expecting instead to be engaged in combat… In February, the U.S. Department of Defense released a Quadrennial Defense Review Report [PDF, 128 pp] that… calls climate change an ‘accelerant of instability’ that could increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters, taxing civilian disaster relief capabilities and requiring more regular military support. DOD has been among the first on scene responding to a string of mass-casualty disasters caused by earthquakes, including the devastating quake in northern Pakistan in 2005… Riding with and interviewing the men and women engaged in efforts here shows that, for most enlisted personnel, relief work in foreign lands is among the most welcome and rewarding parts of their service. It's also almost as exhausting and stressful as combat, and not without its own levels of danger and deadly threats, especially in northern Pakistan.”

2010 Tied (So Far) for Warmest on Record. By John Collins Rudolf, NYTimes, 10/18/10. “With more than two months to go, 2010 is on pace to tie 1998 as the warmest year in the historical record, according to an analysis of land and sea surface temperatures by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Signs of warming were evident in the opening of the Northwest Passage and Northeast Passage to shipping, the third straight year that these normally ice-choked waterways were extensively ice-free in the summer… Sea ice in the Arctic reached its third-lowest extent in the modern record this summer. Sea ice volume, which measures the thickness of ice, reached a record low this year, however, falling nearly 70% below the average of the last 30 years, according to the Polar Science Center of the University of Washington. In North America, warming was especially pronounced in Alaska, where researchers recently announced that the growing season for the state’s interior had expanded from 85 days in the early 20th century to 123 days today.”

African Development Forum Meets in Addis Ababa, Warned that Climate Change is Already Causing Human Migrations. Afrique en ligne, 10/16/10. “Climate change is causing growing internal population migrations and displacements in Africa, a top official of the U.N. High Commission for Refugees [UNHCR], Chrysantus Ache, said Friday [10/15/10]. Ache, the UNHCR representative at the Africa Union and the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa [UNECA], said more and more people were on the move, escaping climate change-induced disasters such as droughts and flooding. Ache warned, at the Seventh African Development Forum [meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia], that the situation would become critical in coming years as the impact of global warming worsens…

“’Climate change is already undermining the livelihoods and security of many people, exacerbating income differentials and deepening inequalities. Over the last two decades, the number of recorded natural disasters has doubled from some 200 to over 400 per year. Nine out of every ten natural disasters today are climate-related,' Ache said. He warned that as temperatures rose further and land became increasingly less productive, urbanization in Africa will also accelerate, generating additional competition for scarce resources and public services in cities. Other experts at the forum also warned that incidences of vector-borne diseases will increase as a result of climate change, as will the cost of food and energy. In the end, this will cause increased social and political conflicts, which on the surface will be difficult to trace to climate change, they said.”

Ozone Hole Provide Temporary Reprieve for Adèlie Penguins. By Michael Todd, Miller-McCune, 9/28/10. "It is the best of times, it is the worst of times -- for penguins… Some colonies of Adèlie penguins, those living near Ross Island, are going to be near-term winners of how climate change affects the world's seventh continent. This will occur even as their peers on the Antarctic Peninsula 2,000 miles away face a punishing slog toward probable localized extinction… In the Ross Sea [which is as far south as one can go on the ocean], the hole in the ozone layer creates upper atmosphere cooling, which increases winds, which increases sea ice. [Penguin scientist] Grant Ballard calls it a 'giant ice generator,' and as long as temperatures remain above freezing, it will likely remain one. 'People expect the ice to be going away, and fast, but in the Ross Sea it isn't -- yet. However, we do expect to in 20 years, or it could be 40 years, depending on which models you look at, we expect we'll start seeing a decline in sea ice again, in the Ross Sea.'… Grant Ballard's mentor, the renowned penguin expert David G. Ainley, has dubbed Adèlies the 'bellwether of climate change,' in part because they are completely dependent on the continued existence of sea ice and in part because they have been well studied and so provide a good baseline for observing change.

"Ballard and the other researchers are providing information to a member of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources [PDF, 23 pp], the one organization with the statutory authority to create non-fishing areas off Antarctica. The convention is planning to examine that possibility in the spring. The researchers have also provided information to the nongovernmental organization the Antarctica and South Ocean Coalition, which while it hasn't taken a stand on a marine protected area for the Ross Sea it is clearly pro-conservation, as the video, The Ross Sea, Antarctica, demonstrates. While Ballard isn't taking a public position on what the convention should do, because the Antarctic is pretty much the last accessible place on Earth that hasn't been completely altered by humanity, he is concerned about a potential loss that echoes beyond Adèlie colonies. 'From a scientific perspective, it's a tragedy to lose this place, last reference point.' Ballard laments. 'From a cultural perspective, a human value perspective, I think people can understand it's probably not a good idea to destroy every ecosystem on the planet.'"

Los Angeles Heat Soars to 113 Degrees. By John Antczak, AP, 9/27/10. "California's blistering fall heat wave sent temperatures to an all-time record high of 113 degrees Monday in downtown Los Angeles… The historic mark was part of an onslaught of temperatures well over 100 degrees in many cities ranging from Anaheim, home of Disneyland, to San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz and Salinas on the usually balmy Central Coast. Many records were set or tied… The giant Los Angeles Unified School District canceled all outdoor activities, including sports competitions and practices… Thousands of heat-related power outages were reported… The early fall blast of intense heat follows an unusually cool summer that often found beaches covered in overcast and whipped by chilly winds."

Chicagoans Plan for Helping Nature Adapt to a Warmer Climate. By William Mullen, Chicago Tribune, September 14, 2010. "Climate change isn't coming to the Chicago area, it is already here. That is the position taken by Chicago Wilderness, an alliance of 254 regional organizations that manage or conserve natural areas. Extending across all or part of 36 counties in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan, it includes huge forest preserve districts, park districts, wildlife sanctuaries, land trusts, universities and research institutions. Earlier this year it issued the Chicago Wilderness Climate Action Plan for Nature, an ambitious blueprint to guide area governments, corporations and conservation agencies in coping with coming environmental changes."

Minnesotans Convene to Plan for Warmer, Wetter Climate. By John Croman, Kare11, September 17, 2010. "Hundreds gathered at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum west of the Twin Cities for the Clean Water and Climate Adaptation Summit. They're not there to debate global warming or whether it's a manmade phenomenon. They're talking about ways to adapt to life in a warmer state, and what that means for land use policies and for future infrastructure needs. Warmer air aloft, for instance, allows clouds to carry more moisture. And, as the theory goes, people living in a warmer Minnesota would see more intense downpours when it does rain."

Fires Cost Russia '300 Billion Dollars' in Deforestation. By Anna Smolchenk, AFP, August 26, 2010. "Wildfires have cost Russia 300 billion dollars in forest loss... according to estimates based on the market value of timber and the cost of reforestation, said Alexei Zimenko, general director of the Biodiversity Conservation Center… The fires might have also dealt a severe blow to a number of rare birds, including cranes, said Viktor Zubakin, president of the Russian Bird Conservation Union... 'By all accounts we've lost large habitats for rare birds,' he added."

Numbers Confirm It: Summer Was a Scorcher. By Mary Esch, AP, August 28, 2010. "New numbers confirm what the sweaty brows of Northeasterners have been saying for months: The summer of 2010 was a record-breaking scorcher. Preliminary figures provided by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University on August 27 show 28 cities from Washington, D.C., to Caribou, Maine, set record highs for average temperature from March through August... Meteorologists say 17 nations have recorded all-time-high temperatures this year, more than in any other year... The National Climatic Data Center reported that July was the second-warmest on record worldwide, and 2010 [remains] on track to be the hottest year."

A Tale of Two Coasts: The East Roasts While the West Shivers. By Andrew Freedman, Climate Central, August 31, 2010. "People along the West Coast from Seattle to San Diego, who have shivered through an unusually cool summer, can be forgiven for being just a little bit jealous of residents of the East Coast, where warm temperature records have repeatedly been smashed this summer. During June, July and part of August as well, it seemed that many coastal areas of the West were missing out on summer entirely. For example, whereas Washington, D.C. tied its record for the warmest month on record, with an average temperature of 83.1 degrees F in July, San Francisco, Calif. recorded its coolest average July maximum temperature since 1971. Only one day reached the 70 degree mark in San Francisco during July. The Climate Central infographic above shows some of the contrasting statistics from early to mid-summer. The data goes through the end of July, but in general the pattern of warmer weather in the East and cooler conditions along the West Coast has continued through much of August, with a few exceptions. For example, a heat wave briefly brought record warmth to the West Coast in mid-to-late August, but such heat was the exception there this summer. The cool temperatures along parts of the West Coast may be related to the emergence of a La Nina event in the equatorial Pacific Ocean."

Record Cold Weather Kills People, Livestock and Wildlife in South America. By Anna Petherick, Nature, August 27, 2010. "With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere's recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country's tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins... The blame lies, at least indirectly, with a mass of Antarctic air that settled over the Southern Cone of South America for most of July. The prolonged cold snap has also been linked to the deaths of at least 550 penguins along the coasts of Brazil and thousands of cattle in Paraguay and Brazil, as well as hundreds of people in the region."

A Global Dust Bowl. By Michael Tennesen, Discover, August 26, 2010. "Blowing dust and brownout conditions on January 19, 2009, created a chain reaction of fatal crashes on I-70 in eastern Colorado. In July a massive dust cloud descended on Iraq, forcing the police to wear masks while directing traffic through the strangely dark streets of Baghdad. In September one of Australia's worst dust storms in 70 years clogged the skies over Sydney with 5 million tons of particles, causing international flights to be diverted and prompting a spike in emergency calls from people who were having trouble breathing. And such disruptions can take on a global dimension. Satellite images show storms in northern Africa blowing particles all the way to the Amazon Basin. Plumes from northern China can reach Hawaii and California. A 2002 dust storm from the Gobi Desert tracked east across the Pacific Ocean, past the United States, and out into the Atlantic. The problem has been building for a long time... Hence dust is both symptom and cause of a grim type of environmental decline: desertification, the degradation of vital grasslands into barren and unproductive desert."

Pakistan: A Sad New Benchmark in Climate-Related Disasters. By Nathanial Gronewold, ClimateWire, August 19, 2010. "Devastating flooding that has swamped one-fifth of Pakistan and left millions homeless is likely the worst natural disaster to date attributable to climate change, U.N. officials and climatologists are now openly saying. There's also no doubt that the Pakistan flooding will join the ranks of the worst natural disasters in recorded history. The flooding started slowly at the end of July and gradually accelerated over the past two weeks. Disaster assessment maps show that almost the entire northern part of Pakistan and most of its central region have been hit. During the most intense storms, about a foot of rain fell over a 36-hour period. Parts of the affected areas, in particular Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province (formerly Northwest Frontier province) received 180 percent of the precipitation expected in a normal monsoon cycle. More rain is expected in the days ahead. Records show that the famed Indus River is at its highest water level ever recorded in the 110 years since regular record-keeping began. Estimates put the number of displaced people at somewhere between 15 million and 20 million, and the government believes about 1,600 are confirmed dead."

Deadly Russian Heat Wave Declared Over. By Alexei Anishchuck, Reuters, August 19, 2010. "Russian meteorologists said on Wednesday Moscow's deadly heat wave was ending after two months of searing weather which took a high human and economic toll... Rains of varied intensity were expected in almost all regions of European Russia, the Urals, Siberia and the country's Far East though to the weekend... Officials broke the silence over the effects of the heat and smoke on Aug. 9, when the head of Moscow's health department, Andrei Seltsovsky, said deaths had doubled to 700 per day and heat was the main cause... The heat wave and drought are also estimated to have destroyed a quarter of Russia's grain crop and could shave $14 billion off this year's gross domestic product."

Heat Records Broken in 17 Countries So Far this Year. By Andrew Freedman, Climate Central, August 12, 2010. "This year is a little more than half over, and already it is one for the climate record books. 2010 has featured several extreme heat events, as well as record flooding, in many countries worldwide. The number of countries that have set new national records for the warmest temperature recorded -- 17 -- would beat the old record of 14, provided that all of the new records are verified by meteorological agencies. According to meteorologist Jeff Masters of the private weather forecasting firm Weather Underground, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the countries that have set new records thus far this year comprise about 19 percent of the earth's surface area… The new record high temperature set in Belarus occurred during the Russian heat wave, which is still gripping portions of that country. Although Russia did not set any all-time record high temperatures, Moscow did, breaking 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time."