Find the program blog with all the links at
 http://www.ecoshock.info

Three stories finally tipped me over the edge, forcing me to make this Fukushima update for you.

First, I've seen undeniable video footage, reported on Russian TV, that Reactor 4 is leaning badly, with a possibility the building could fall over. I'll tell you why that is a risk to the whole world.

Then, Japan suddenly released an aerial map of radioactive contamination, developed with the U.S. Energy Agency. It shows horrible radiation far outside the 20 kilometer exclusion zone - up to 80 kilometers away from the damaged nuclear plant. Why aren't these people being evacuated!

The final straw: children inside that real radiation zone, like those in the Japanese City of Fukushima, about 63 kilometers, 39 miles from the nuclear plant. The kids are being kept inside, because their playgrounds are too radioactive to allow them outside. Why are these children being kept inside radioactive hot zones! At least save the children, those most at risk for radiation poisoning, and long-term cancer.

But no, they are still there, even after locals brought contaminated playground soil to authorities, in a protest unusual in Japan.

That's just the tip of a melt-down. Three reactors admittedly melted down. At least two nuclear spent fuel ponds are partly blown-up or leaking. Radiation levels higher than Chernobyl. Two reactors are heating up dangerously, one even beyond normal operating temperature in a reactor. This amid a culture of hidden nuclear worker poisoning, and a history of withholding nasty nuclear facts.

You need to know, and I need to tell you. Let us suffer through this awful mess together, for three reasons.

1. This radioactivity, still pouring out daily, has reached my home and it has reached your home. It is blanketing planet Earth right now, and no-one has been able to stop it.

2. We have just learned all the fuel has melted down in Reactor 1. Both the reactor & containment may be punctured. A code-red situation here, and in Reactor 3 out of control.

3. As the head of the United Nations admits - this is not the last nuclear accident. The aging reactors of the world are being patched up and relicensed even after Fukushima. The nuclear danger is multiplying, with no obvious signs of resistance. Not even a living anti-nuclear movement. Yet.


THE GOOD NEWS

There is some good news. On May 10th, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan appears to have cancelled plans to build 14 new nuclear reactors. Such a step was unimaginable before Fukushima.

Prime Minister Kan also requested, and got, the closure of what has long been considered Japan's most dangerous reactor - the Hamaoka nuclear power station. Some reports suggest the Americans pressured this decision, fearing radiation risk to nearby bases at Yokota, Yokosuka, Atsugi and Zama

Like the American nuclear power plants at San Onfre and Diablo Canyon in California, this Hamaoka nuclear plant is right on an Earth quake fault zone, on the ocean with not enough tsunami defenses, and way too close to heavily populated areas. As far as I know, this is the first time in human history an operating nuclear power plant was closed down, because it was insanely dangerous to keep it open. One down, over 400 left to go.

Even more amazing, and hopeful for our future, if it's not too late, Naoto Kan also announced Japan will build sustainable energy instead of more nuclear. The new Japan may be powered by the Sun, the wind, and geothermal energy.