Balisage

Climatic, geological, or anthropogenic natural disasters produce in a couple of seconds, hours or days, enormous amounts of waste, so much so that authorities are unable to handle the quantity with ordinary means. The rupture of “lifelines”, namely water, electricity, transportation routes and communication lines, send survivors into a deep confusion. The accumulation of rubble and waste increases the shock of the populations and postpones the first steps towards the return to normalcy.

The 3 million tonnes of rubble generated by the earthquake in Los Angeles in January 1994 led the city to reinforce and multiply its recycling capacities. Provisional transit and elimination sites for future earthquakes were pre-selected.

Despite the current conflict and the break in diplomatic relations between France and Libya, the city of Sète and its tourist heart continue to represent Libya, as always without problem, the regime of the famous colonel. Ten tuna fishing boats proudly claiming their homeport and their administrative and financial connections with Tripoli adorn the streets and terraces of the cafés. The riverboats in Sète departing the old city’s bridge leave to the right a part of the Libyan fleet while declaiming through a megaphone, “Since forever the tuna fishing boats of Sète fish for bluefin tuna exclusively in the Mediterranean.”

The ocean is still considered as a trash can. Radioactive releases by Japan are increased by a decrease of vigilance. What is occurring in the Pacific Ocean is probably inevitable. However it is not excusable nor should it be viewed as routine as many scientific experts in dispersion and farfetched comparison are currently stating. This type of practice would be impossible in the North East Atlantic. Contracting Parties to the OSPAR Convention follow carefully step by step the slow progression of iodine 131, of cesium 137 and of plutonium released by nuclear installations along the Channel and the North Sea to the Arctic Ocean.

Following the alert at the beginning of 2011 on the passing of the health threshold by PCBs and dioxins in a sample of milk, the investigation broadens to a perimeter of 3 km around Aprochim, placing today under total or partial isolation the livestock of 8 agricultural farms at Grez-en-Bouère and at Bouère in the Mayenne region. The quasi-totality of the investigation concerns the meat and the fat from meat. For the milk, the situation is fluctuating and to this day the commercialization of the production of only one farm is suspended. The chicken factory farms are not touched, but the official report must be consolidated when the chickens are liberated from their cages in the springtime. On the other hand, the diligent research by the Regional Agency of Health shows that eggs in domestic backyards contain PCB and dioxin levels superior to the national average. The geographic logic of the contamination designates Aprochim as principally responsible.

Following the alert at the beginning of 2011 on the passing of the health threshold by PCBs and dioxins in a sample of milk, the investigation broadens to a perimeter of 3 km around Aprochim, placing today under total or partial isolation the livestock of 8 agricultural farms at Grez-en-Bouère and at Bouère in the Mayenne region. The quasi-totality of the investigation concerns the meat and the fat from meat. For the milk, the situation is fluctuating and to this day the commercialization of the production of only one farm is suspended. The chicken factory farms are not touched, but the official report must be consolidated when the chickens are liberated from their cages in the springtime. On the other hand, the diligent research by the Regional Agency of Health shows that eggs in domestic backyards contain PCB and dioxin levels superior to the national average. The geographic logic of the contamination designates Aprochim as principally responsible. Aprochim is one of the accredited installations in France for the decontamination of transformers and metallic masses contaminated by PCBs. It is operational since 1990 and has treated more than 200,000 tons of contaminated material. A neighboring business of Aprochim is susceptible to release PCBs and dioxins into the atmosphere; specialising in paint stripping of metallic items, it is in financial trouble and does not have sufficient funds to conduct an analysis of its atmospheric emissions.

Thanks to the technological help from France, in 1970 in Tokaï-Mura, south of Fukushima, Japan opened a pilot irradiated fuel-reprocessing factory.

In 1987, Cogema (COmpanie GEnérale des MAtières nucléaires) signed a contract for 1.4 billion francs, equivalent to 213 million Euros, to help construct a new reprocessing factory in Rokkasho-Mura, north of Fukushima – a replica of la Hague’s inland factory near Cherbourg. It should have started service in 2005, but today we are still waiting. As a result, the Fukushima-Daiichi accident site also houses a pool of irradiated fuel, common to the six reactors. The pool is supersaturated and serves as buffer storage pending the start of the Rokkasho-Mura factory. The vice president of Tepco, Tokyo Electric Power Company, declared in 2002 while the local and hostile nuclear referenda were multiplying that “the extraction of plutonium was vital.” The Rokkasho factory must then serve to extract the irradiated plutonium fuel and to re-inject the new fuel associated with the enriched, mixed oxide uranium plutonium fuel. In waiting for the eventual opening of the Rokkasho-Mura factory, France furnished the Japanese reactors with MOX. On March 10th 2011, the day before the earthquake, Areva, the leading French nuclear company, announced to the French High Committee for the Transparence of Information on Nuclear Safety the imminent departure of a new sea transport of MOX between Cherbourg and Japan, which would include fuel for the 3rd reactor at Fukushima-Daiichi.

The extravagant iodine-131 content around the area of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a result of leaching of emergency cooling waters used by firefighters and emergency workers. At Fukushima and at French nuclear facilities, there is no collection device for these cooling waters whereas all warehouses storing chemical products are legally bound to be equipped with a collection basin of polluted water used to extinguish fires. The iodine-131 content is also a result of the consequent radioactive dust deposits of the explosions in the heights of the nuclear islets, namely the buildings, the reactors, and the pools. The iodine-131 is one of the indicators of pollution. Other measures will later show similar deviations from standards for cesium-137 and plutonium.

The extravagant iodine-131 content around the area of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is a result of leaching of emergency cooling waters used by firefighters and emergency workers. At Fukushima and at French nuclear facilities, there is no collection device for these cooling waters whereas all warehouses storing chemical products are legally bound to be equipped with a collection basin of polluted water used to extinguish fires. The iodine-131 content is also a result of the consequent radioactive dust deposits of the explosions in the heights of the nuclear islets, namely the buildings, the reactors, and the pools. The iodine-131 is one of the indicators of pollution. Other measures will later show similar deviations from standards for cesium-137 and plutonium.

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
Press release n°11

Several species of large and small cetaceans frequent the coastal waters of eastern Japan and are in the area affected by the liquid and atmospheric radioactive effluent discharged by the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant.

In particular, this concerns sperm whales, Bryde’s whales, Minke whales, Dall’s porpoises and dolphins. Their lifespan, diet and position at the top of the marine food chain expose them all to the bioaccumulation of chemical and radioactive pollutants.

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan
Press release n°11

Several species of large and small cetaceans frequent the coastal waters of eastern Japan and are in the area affected by the liquid and atmospheric radioactive effluent discharged by the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant.

In particular, this concerns sperm whales, Bryde’s whales, Minke whales, Dall’s porpoises and dolphins. Their lifespan, diet and position at the top of the marine food chain expose them all to the bioaccumulation of chemical and radioactive pollutants.