Nightmares

When I heard about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I felt compassion for the people affected. Then I heard about the power plant; the NUCLEAR power plant that was affected and I was terrified.

When I went to the tv to find more information, I was shocked and saddened to find every channel full of Charlie Sheen and his insane ramblings rather than information about a possible meltdown. I turned to the internet and found that CNN had a live stream of the Japanese news agency. When I got that up and streaming I was shocked again to find that persons in Tokyo were more concerned about the fact that the train lines were being delayed rather than the thousands killed in the earthquake and tsunami and the possible contamination of a nuclear event.

Something told me that this event at Fukushima Dai-Ichi was not going to be good. Maybe it was because I had studied nuclear power and bomb tests before and knew that news about these things tended to be played down in order to reduce panic but what we were hearing wasn't good but it didn't seem that anyone was listening....or maybe they just didn't care.

That scared me most of all.

The passage of time and distance from events like this deaden our senses to the danger they pose. Chernobyl seems a far off memory and some current writers are spinning the tale that the effects of Chernobyl were not as devastating as we once believed. As I was researching the newest nuclear disaster, I happened upon this article from a magazine about recent tourism in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. It made it sound as if nature had taken over the man-made city of Pripyat and was flourishing amidst the storm of radiation that continues to pound the land. The article neglected to mention the danger of continuing genetic abnormalities that are being studied from wildlife in the area or the lasting effects that the radiation and it's contamination of food after the event has had on the populace of the former Soviet states and parts of Europe.

I suppose the fact that radiation is odorless, colorless and can have cumulative effects make us forget that the danger is still among us even though the current crisis is over.

The current crisis in Japan is far from over. TEPCO is having major problems stopping the reactors and even though they project within 9 months they will have the reactors shut down, that says nothing about when the fuel will be stable and stored away to lessen the danger. There has been talk of building a sarcophagus like at Chernobyl. Unfortunately, no one has mentioned that even now 25 years later the sarcophagus is not enough and needs a more permanent solution.

It is very unfortunate that we have the mentality that the risk of nuclear power and nuclear bombs are the safest alternatives to fossil fuels and conventional weapons when we have no clue how damaging the effects of these 'once in a lifetime' events (which are occurring more frequently that most people know) will be on our communities, our countries and our planet.

I am not one of those run into the woods and stockpile weapons and food type people, but it is funny that the only magazine I could find in my local bookstore yesterday that said anything about Fukushima or the earthquake in Japan was a survivalist mag. Maybe they aren't so far off; maybe we are ushering in a new type of Armageddon. I wonder who will listen?