Regarding the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima facility.
I've been getting most of my news from the BBC, CNN and the Japanese television feeds. It's 1:45pm here, 9:45 pm in Britain and 5:45 am Wed morning in Japan. People just waking up. Seems like there's not a lot of news since yesterday's reports about the radiation levels (think in millisierverts) and all of the other truly frightening possibilities.
Nothing much new, in our world of constant updates, the comforting thing would be that it's all taken care of, nothing to be concerned about in Western Washington.
I don't believe that for a minute.
One reason for the dearth of information is that the major news organizations have pulled their people from the Fukushima evacuation area.
And the idea that the workers who have stayed are facing damaging radiation exposure.
Picked up this opinion from Business Insider website through Reuters
TEPCO's new plan is to dump water by helicopter, which sounds incredibly desperate.
Ah, now they are saying
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) has just announced it is abandoning the plan to use helicopters to drop water as it would be too impractical.
Even I can figure that one out.
What would my father have to say about this? Al Ginsburgh was always a proponent of nuclear power. In the 70s, he even had a mailing list of about 100 people he maintained, to whom he sent information about the benefits of nuclear power. Fortunately, I was able to donate all these files of primary sources to Rockford College hopefully to be used by students or faculty interested in energy policy research.
I remember him joking around with some colleagues "Yes, we got in on the ground floor with nuclear power but nobody told use that the building was only one story!"
He might have acted the expert explaining the different issues. And the current state of the reactors at Fukushima exhibit all kinds of examples of what could go wrong, loss of power, explosions, fire, destruction of outer buildings, possible containment breach, spent fuel rods having their water bath evaporate, exposure of fuel rods to the air and heaven knows what else. He might explain the technical issues of each one.
Or he might had been silent, feeling that he should not give out important classified information. Especially not to his children (whatever their age, I'm currently 58) because these were grown up adult matters.
Or, as in later years, he might have sulked and withdrawn refusing to engage.
Why do I write about my father today? Who passed away in 2007? Today is the Ides of March (March 15). Four years ago on this day, the task fell to me when I was in Rockford to coordinate a care-plan meeting where he would be told that he would not be able to come home. This involved organizing pre-pre-meeting where the social work staff told me that my mother had to say that she did not want or be unable to care for them in their cottage. And a pre-meeting where my mother appeared and made those statements himself. I felt so sad for him during the actual meeting when he heard this because it was not what he wanted at all.
Then after lunch, I had to supervise a trip to his internist with both my parents where the doctor said that the tumor that had spread to his brain was untreatable and would be fatal. Generally my father did not allow me to accompany him to his medical appointments. "None of your damn business". Not only would he not allow me into the appointment, he would not let me stay in the waiting room, he would not even let me be in the car. But this one was all mine to make happen.
Then, in the evening, I had to organize hospice services for my mom to have.
Omigosh, what a day. :(
As I helped him back into bed after the doctor appointment he said to me "Thank you Sandy for all of your help today". Whoa, I had never heard such a thing from him. Ever.
Shot is an aerial view of the Fukushima complex. Lord help us all.
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