The impact of this symposium will go well beyond March 2013 because of the impression made on the participants, and because the lectures, documents and graphic illustrations are available online at Nuclear Free Planet. They will also appear as a film Cinema Forum Fukushima and in book form.
The New York lectures will continue to play an important role in keeping the nuclear danger in front of the public
Two years after Fukushima: a tale of two symposiums Independent Australia 12 April 13, With news today that Fukushima has sprung another radioactive leak, Noel Wauchope reports on two very different nuclear symposiums held last month.
Symposium One: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident JUST OVER two years ago, Independent Australia was first to break the news of the real urgency of the Fukushima nuclear accident
Governments, corporations, and mainstream media would have us believe that the Fukushima crisis is resolved — now for nuclear/uranium business as usual. It’s all over, really
But is it?
On March 11th and 12th, on the two year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear accident, some 400 people gathered at of the New York Academy of Medicine to hear 20 prestigious speakers discuss the meaning of this event for Japan and for the world.
I don’t think that there has ever been an international gathering quite like this, with at so many highly qualified speakers discussing the meaning of a critical world event. So, I was a bit disappointed to find myself to be the only Australian there — apart from symposium co-ordinator, the eminent Dr Helen Caldicott.
The professionalism of this event was apparent — from the historic venue, The New York Academy of Medicine, to the calibre of the speakers, the organisation of the event, and the seriousness of the 400 or so participants……..
Japan’s former Prime Minister Naoto Kan opened the symposium by video. The seriousness of the Fukushima situation was explained by Dr Hisaku Sakiyama and diplomat Akio Matsumura. The Japanese presence and support for this event was strongly evident. A group of concerned Japanese mothers, spoke at an informal lunch-time meeting……
A huge welcome was given to Dr Alexei Yablokov, Russian environmental researcher, who in 2009 first revealed to the world the magnitude of the health effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (the Establishment didn’t like this). He and Dr Wladimir Wertelecki focussed on research areas ignored by the world’s scientific and health authorities: the effects of internal emitters of radiation — the radionucleides that are breathed in, or ingested, and lodge inside the body.
Both Yablokov and Wertelecki stressed the impacts on women, on foetuses, infants and children. Dr Werterlecki’s outstanding research on congenital malformations deserves a presentation all on its own. Alas, no space here to do justice to his account of the 10 year Ukraine program Omni-Net Ukraine Birth Defects Prevention Program. But, having listened to these speakers, one is left in no doubt that women and infants are in the greatest need of protection from ionising radiation. And also that the accepted radiation standards — based on an adult man, are a joke. This imbalance, the neglect of focus on the vulnerability of women, was emphasised by Mary Olson in discussing “Gender Matters in the Atomic Age”……..
While radiation was the main theme of the symposium, the second day shifted the focus to America’s nuclear waste problem……
David Freeman assessed nuclear power and climate change as “the most horrible threats that mankind faces”. With two years having passed now, since the Fukushima accident, media, business and governments will no doubt tend to ignore its effects.
The impact of this symposium will go well beyond March 2013 because of the impression made on the participants, and because the lectures, documents and graphic illustrations are available online at Nuclear Free Planet. They will also appear as a film Cinema Forum Fukushima and in book form.
The New York lectures will continue to play an important role in keeping the nuclear danger in front of the public……http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/environment/two-years-after-fukushima-a-tale-of-two-symposiums/
