TDPS: Great interview on what's being hidden about Japan nuclear radiation problems - TRANSCRIPT

[celtics23]

Run time: 08:32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlIavyHAdv4   Posted on YouTube: March 15, 2011 By YouTube Member: MidweekPolitics Views on YouTube: 493   Posted on DU: March 16, 2011 By DU Member: celtics23 Views on DU: 788

 
Please vote to send fellow DUer David Pakman to Netroots Nation 11, it takes 15 seconds: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/1167-david-pakman

Announcer: Welcome back to The David Pakman Show.

David: All right, we're back on the show. Of course, we've been following the situation from the earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan, and joining me is Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. He has a Ph.D. in engineering and specializes in nuclear fusion. Thank you so much for joining us on short notice.

Arjun Makhijani: You're welcome.

David: Can you give me a sense of the best-- to the best of your knowledge, what are we seeing so far in terms of the damage to the power plants in Japan and the possible effects to human beings?

Makhijani: Well, we're seeing an unprecedented accident. There have never been three reactors stricken in the same place at the same time that have lost cooling and the authorities have their hands full trying to keep these reactors cool. If you don't inject cooling water into the reactors, you get a meltdown. A part of that has already happened, there've been partial meltdowns in at least two and maybe three reactors. When there is a meltdown, you get hydrogen evolution. Hydrogen gas is generated, and that has caused explosions in two of them.

So we're-- and there has been outside radioactivity measured at times-- at more than 10,000 times the natural radiation level. So you're looking at a scenario that's radiologically already fairly serious, and that could become much more serious because the authorities are still struggling.

David: Many of the common points of comparison for people in the U.S. seem to be Three Mile Island, Chernobyl. I've heard some experts say, and you know, they-- self-proclaimed experts say that this already overshadows that significantly. Is that true?

Makhijani: Well, I wouldn't put Chernobyl and Three Mile Island in the same box. I do agree that this overshadows Three Mile Island already. It's three reactors, there have been measurable, significant radiation doses to workers, enough, apparently, to admit three of them sick, there've been significant exposure to the public that have been measured by the authorities themselves. Now, there were releases of radioactivity from Three Mile Island, but to all appearances, the external radiation outside the plant has already exceeded that.

Now, Chernobyl was a much larger-scale accident, and it doesn't seem to me that this has reached that scale as yet, although it has that potential. There are three reactors involved, plus the used fuel from these reactors, some of it is stored in the reactor building, and two reactor buildings have been blown away and we don't-- large parts of them have been blown away, and we don't know the condition of the spent fuel pools, which also have to be cooled. And in those pools, there could not only be a meltdown accident, there could be a fire. If that spent fuel catches fire because it's not being cooled for a day or two, then you could have long-term pollution consequences that could rival Chernobyl, at least for long-term contamination.

David: So give me a sense of outside, you indicated these three individuals that have already-- apparently showing symptoms, what do we know about the exposure and how others just who live in the area may be affected, are being affected?

Makhijani: Well, we don't know a lot. The authorities have not been very forthcoming. If you look at the press releases of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, they're very, very meager. We have some numbers, some of it reported from the press, we have heard that in some places, Geiger counters have gone off-scale, but we have very meager official information. We know they've been testing people and children for exposure, but we don't have the results.

It seems reasonably clear from the hydrogen explosions and the partial meltdown that a significant amount of radioactivity has been released and will continue to be released. It was measured offshore by the Navy about 60 kilometers or 60 miles away. And so the radiological consequences are significant. They're not anywhere near the scale of Chernobyl as yet, but they are important.

David: Give me a sense of, I mean, just to give our audience a sense, if someone is in the area, is exposed for, I don't know, 15 minutes and then leaves that area, do-- are there consequences for life?

Makhijani: Well, every additional bit of radiation will produce an additional risk of cancer. That's what we know. Now, so if you're there for a short time, for instance, if you were there at the peak of the radiation that was measured, 1000 microsieverts per hour, there, in 15 minutes, you'll get about equal to the annual dose of radiation allowed from nuclear power plants in a year in the United States, which is not...

David: In 15 minutes?

Makhijani: Yeah, in 15 minutes.

David: Right.

Makhijani: Which is not a huge increase in risk, but it is an increase in risk, because that allowable limit is set at that kind of level.

David: And you talked about not having... not receiving great information from Japanese officials. Is this a concern given that the Japanese have covered up nuclear industry problems in the past? I mean, in '96 in the Ibaraki province, the government never even admitted that radioactive fallout had drifted over Tokyo. Should we be concerned about not getting the right information?

Makhijani: Well, you know, in a crisis, we all slip back into our established patterns, and this is kind of an unfortunate thing where the government says trust us, be calm, and the basis of that trust hasn't been established. What I would recommend to the Japanese government and the nuclear authorities, Tokyo Electric, is that they say clearly what they know and also say clearly what they don't know.

They should say clearly what is this... because the accident's already more than moderately damaging, they should say what are the extreme consequences and what kinds of things people can anticipate in the worst case and what they should do, because as it is, because of the tsunami and the earthquake, which are the main damage, it's not the reactor that's the main damage right now, it is the tsunami and the earthquake, people have to look after themselves. The government is trying to help, I, you know, applaud their efforts and wish them the best, but people will have to fend for themselves for some time. If they don't-- if they're not given the tools, they can't be calm, and so they want the people to be calm, they should give more information.

David: Last thing here before we have to go, I've heard that iodine is being sent over. Can you just address what is the goal of that, what does iodine prevent or treat?

Makhijani: Yeah. Iodine, in normal iodine, we all need iodine, it's part of our thyroid gland mechanism to make the hormones from our thyroid gland, and there's radioactive iodine in the reactors, which preferentially goes to the thyroid if you breathe in the thing, and also especially goes to the thyroid if you drink contaminated milk. So what iodine tablets do is they overwhelm the radioactive iodine and less of it would go to the thyroid and you'll get less radiation poisoning. But very importantly, people should be advised not to take milk that could be contaminated, but I think that's farther down in the future.

David: Incredible. Arjune Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. Thanks so much for your expertise on short notice today.

Makhijani: Thank you very much for asking me.

David: OK. We'll check in again with you soon as the situation progresses.

Wow, Louis. I mean, that... that's an expert, I would say.

Louis: Yeah, I think so. Fascinating stuff.

David: And really just an incredible situation there in Japan, and just hoping for the best right now, really. I mean, I don't even know what else we can say.

Louis: Yeah. Looking at some of the more recent footage, it's incredible the scale of the disaster.

David: It really is. It really is. And we'll continue to report on it, again, we're just not going to read off statistics. It's been 24/7 for days. We're not going to have anything to add to that, but hopefully Mr. Makhijani did provide some specific expertise into at least this nuclear power aspect of what's going on.

Louis: Right. We're all being bombarded with news from Japan at this point.



Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham and www.Subscriptorium.com. For transcripts, translations, captions, and subtitles, or for more information, visit www.Subscriptorium.com, or contact Alex at [e-mail].

[aliciaabs19]

1. Great interview! Thanks for posting

[tins0404]

2. Scary stuff, but very good expert