Beyond Nuclear International
No room at the ER
New report looks at how medical services could never cope in a nuclear war
We have already seen how quickly overwhelmed emergency rooms, hospital wards and intensive care units quickly became when faced with the pandemic brought on by the Covid-19 virus. Now, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) brings us its latest report — No place to hide: nuclear weapons and the collapse of health care systems — which looks at how the healthcare systems in 10 major cities would cope in the event of a nuclear war.
The study models the detonation of one 100-kiloton airburst nuclear explosion over major cities in each of the nine nuclear-armed states and Germany, which hosts U.S. nuclear weapons on its territory. It then examines how many hospital beds, doctors, nurses and where information is available, ICU beds and burn care centers would be left to treat hundreds of thousands to over one million injured people. What follows is the Executive Summary. Download the full report.
Nuclear-armed states may prepare to use nuclear weapons but they can never adequately prepare for the humanitarian consequences of their use. Examining the existing health infrastructure available to respond to the explosion of a moderately-sized nuclear weapon over nine cities in nuclear-armed states and one non-nuclear armed state’s capital makes this point tragically clear.
A nuclear war would realistically involve many nuclear weapons targeting many cities in a country, creating an enormous humanitarian catastrophe impossible for any health care system to deal with — one that could potentially lead to the end of civilization as we know it. But if even just one average-sized nuclear weapon were to be detonated over a major city today, the immediate health impact would be disastrous beyond the ability of any nation to effectively respond.
This report uses publicly available information about hospitals, doctors, nurses and the NUKEMAP simulator to evaluate the immediate health response capacity to treat victims of a 100 kiloton airburst nuclear weapon detonation. This NUKEMAP model does not include the impact of mass fire or fallout after a nuclear detonation.
While the consequences of this model varied from city to city based on population density and geographic size, the data is clear: even without calculating for the mass fires or fallout caused by a nuclear blast, none of these cities would have anywhere near the sufficient healthcare capacity to respond to a nuclear explosion over their city. There would not be enough doctors, nurses, hospital beds or intensive care unit (ICU) beds – even assuming that all available medical professionals are adequately trained in emergency medicine and that every bed listed in each of these cities that is not destroyed during the nuclear attack is unoccupied.
Under this scenario in New Delhi, for example, roughly 50,000 beds would have to accommodate more than two and a half million injured people. Several cities lack needed burn beds: Paris has nine; London two.
After the bomb’s destruction of medical personnel and infrastructure, cities would be overwhelmed. In Washington D.C., over 500,000 people would be killed or injured by the blast. In Berlin, one-third of hospitals would be destroyed.
Read MoreA fight for homeland
‘From Hiroshima to Fukushima’ illustrates the history of nuclear desecration
By Candyce Paul
Sam Kerson first approached us nearly a decade ago offering to share some linocut prints with us. At that time we, the Committee for Future Generations, were embattled by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. We are the Poplar/Aspen Tree Home Dene (English River First Nation). The Nuclear waste management Organization was soliciting us to allow them to build a nuclear waste dump on our traditional territory.
Our Committee for Future Generations was in a campaign to raise awareness across Saskatchewan, Canada, and the world about the serious risks we were facing. We had walked and talked, and used social media, camped and gathered, and brought in experts. Our idea was to show the people that we were struggling against the industrial military complex. Our very DNA was on the line. We stood to protect the next 7000 Generations of all living things.
It is usually our duty to care for the Earth and to support 7 generations ahead of us. However in the case of the radioactivity generated by the nuclear industry, we must protect 7000 generations. The radioactive elements being created today will be hazardous to humans and other species for 7000 generations of life on this planet. We went toe to toe with the sales brokers the industry sent to pitch this glorified waste dump. We exposed their gaps and their outright lies and propaganda at every opportunity. In 2014 they admitted defeat and left Saskatchewan to try to find a willing “host” community in Ontario.
But we continue defending our people. Our territory has some of the highest grade uranium deposits in the world. More than 2700 mineral claims are on file, primarily intending to mine uranium, There are currently 5 uranium mines and 2 mills in our territory and 2 other companies are in the preliminary stages of applying for a licence to mine. Until this industry is shut down neither us, nor people in the places where the yellow cake is distributed will be safe.
Read MoreLa castastrope de Fukushima a ruiné leur vie
Ils ont milité pour la justice, mais l’accident nucléaire les a tués de toute façon
Par Linda Pentz Gunter
Kenichi Hasegawa était producteur laitier dans le département de Fukushima au moment de la catastrophe nucléaire de Fukushima Daiichi du 11 mars 2011. Il vivait dans une famille composée de huit personnes, dans le village d’Iitate avec ses parents, sa femme, ses enfants et ses petits-enfants.
Iitate se trouve à environ 50 kilomètres du site nucléaire, mais est rapidement devenu l’un des endroits les plus contaminés par la radioactivité à la suite de la catastrophe de Fukushima. Pourtant, les habitants ont été peu informés et il a fallu plus d’un mois pour qu’un ordre d’évacuation soit émis pour Iitate. Beaucoup ne sont partis qu’à la fin du mois de juin.
M. Hasegawa lui-même est resté à Iitate pendant cinq mois après la catastrophe, s’occupant de ses vaches, jusqu’à ce qu’elles soient toutes abattues. Pendant cette période et jusqu’à la fin de l’année 2012, il a pris plus de dix mille photos et fait 180 vidéos (en japonais) afin de conserver une trace visuelle des conditions de vie sur place.
Le 22 octobre 2021, Hasegawa est décédé d’un cancer de la thyroïde à tout juste 68 ans, très probablement causé par son exposition prolongée à l’iode radioactif libéré, lors de la catastrophe nucléaire de Fukushima Daiichi.
Avant la catastrophe nucléaire, Hasegawa possédait 50 vaches laitières et cultivait des légumes. Il était également un leader politique, occupant le poste de maire de son quartier. Mais l’accident de Fukushima a tout changé.
Avec une forte concentration de substances radioactives dans le lait, son entreprise a été ruinée. Furieux de la dissimulation de l’étendue réelle de la contamination radioactive par les autorités, il est devenu co-représentant, avec Mme Ruiko Muto, du Comité de liaison du groupe des victimes d’accidents nucléaires, créé en 2015.
Il avait déjà écrit un livre en 2012: Genpatsu ni « furusato » wo ubawarete (La centrale nucléaire nous a volé notre pays natal). Il existe une traduction anglaise de ce livre (Fukushima’s Stolen Lives : A Dairy Farmer’s Story), dans lequel il rapporte une série de témoignages sur les conséquences de la catastrophe nucléaire, « alors qu’il souffrait de savoir que ses enfants et ses petits-enfants avaient été exposés aux radiations, qu’il perdait tout son bétail (qui était considéré comme faisant partie de la famille, et pas seulement comme étant la source de sa subsistance), et qu’il était très affecté par le suicide d’un collègue et ami, producteur de lait comme lui. »
Cet ami a écrit ces derniers mots sur un mur, avant de mourir : « Si seulement il n’y avait pas la centrale nucléaire. »
Hasegawa est retourné à Iitate en 2018, une fois l’ordre d’évacuation levé, et a commencé à cultiver du sarrasin, en grande partie pour éviter que ses pâturages ne se transforment en friches. Bien que les niveaux de radiation dans le sarrasin se situaient en dessous de la norme considérée comme dangereuse, Hasegawa n’a pas pu vendre sa récolte.
Read MoreThe Fukushima disaster ruined their lives
They campaigned for justice, but the nuclear accident killed them anyway
By Linda Pentz Gunter
Kenichi Hasegawa was a dairy farmer in Fukushima Prefecture at the time of the March 11, 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, living in a family of eight in Itate village with his parents, wife, children and grandchildren.
Iitate is approximately 50 kilometers away from the nuclear site, but quickly became one of the most radioactively contaminated places as a result of the Fukushima disaster. Yet, residents were told little and it took more than a month for an evacuation order to be issued for Itate. Many did not leave until late June.
Mr. Hasegawa himself stayed on in Itate for five months after the disaster, tending to his cows until all of them were put down. Meanwhile, he kept a visual record of conditions there, taking more than ten thousand photos and 180 videos (in Japanese).
On October 22, 2021 Hasegawa died of thyroid cancer at just 68, almost certainly caused by his prolonged exposure to radioactive iodine released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe.
Before the nuclear disaster, Hasegawa owned 50 dairy cows and farmed vegetables. He was also a political leader, serving as mayor of his local ward. But the Fukushima accident changed everything.
With a high concentration of radioactive substances now found in dairy milk, his business was ruined. Angered by the cover-up by authorities of the true extent of radioactive contamination, he became a co-representative along with Ms. Ruiko Muto, of the Nuclear Accident Victims Group Liaison Committee, established in 2015.
By then, he had already authored the 2012 book, Fukushima’s Stolen Lives: A Dairy Farmer’s Story, in which he delivered an eyewitness account of the aftermath of the nuclear disaster, “as he suffered with the knowledge that his children and grandchildren had been exposed to radiation, as he lost all of his cattle (who were considered part of the family, not simply the source of their livelihood), and as he endured the suicide of a fellow dairy farmer and friend.”
That friend wrote his final words on a wall before he died: “If only there were no nuclear power plants.”
Read MoreThe Fukushima taboo
“Coming out” on thyroid cancer from Fukushima is an act of bravery in today’s Japan
By Linda Pentz Gunter
In the midst of the arcane fight over whether to include nuclear power in the European Union’s green “Taxonomy”, five former prime ministers of Japan made an unprecedented statement. They roundly condemned any inclusion of nuclear power as a green or sustainable energy, even as a so-called bridging fuel.
The current Japanese government glossed over the climate arguments in the former prime ministers’ argument, quickly seizing upon one tiny phrase concerning conditions in Japan post-Fukushima that read: “many children are suffering from thyroid cancer”.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party even went so far as to approve a resolution condemning the five former prime ministers, one of whom, Junichiro Koizumi, is from that party. The resolution alleges that their statement was not “scientific” and that they were reigniting prejudice and encouraging people to view people from Fukushima as social outcasts.
The party’s Policy Research Board said it would submit its resolution to current prime minister, Fumio Kishida.
On the same day — January 27, 2022 — as the former prime ministers’ letter was submitted to the EU, six young people who were children at time of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against TEPCO, the owner and operator of the nuclear plant.
The six, ages 17 to 27, hold the company responsible for the thyroid cancers each of them developed after being exposed to the radiation released by the nuclear disaster.
In filing suit and thus making the issue public, the six were immediately on the receiving end of an unprecedented level of abuse for speaking out. In this video of their testimony, they were obliged to keep their physical appearances concealed for fear of further reprisals.
“Coming out” on thyroid cancer — or indeed about any negative health impacts resulting from the Fukushima nuclear disaster — remains largely taboo in Japan. Studies that conclude the medical impacts are significant or even substantial, are met with equal hostility, stoniness or just plain silence.
Read MoreUkraine’s reactors at risk
15 reactors plus Chernobyl in unprecedented warzone situation
Note: This statement was released on February 25. However, the situation is clearly evolving. Updates can be found on the Beyond Nuclear website.
A statement by Beyond Nuclear
Beyond Nuclear joins the chorus of voices calling for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, a situation that could become orders of magnitude worse should any of the country’s 15 nuclear reactors suffer major damage due to military exchanges.
We are in an unprecedented situation, with, for the first time, a war happening in a region where there are operating nuclear reactors. This presents an extreme risk to human life unlike any we have seen in previous wars, even when traditional infrastructure has been bombed and destroyed.
The humanitarian tragedy is already enormous, with people fleeing, abandoning homes and businesses, with their lives upended and their safety and survival in jeopardy. However, should a major release of radioactivity occur due to the damage or destruction of any one of the country’s 15 reactors, the scale of the disaster would escalate to unimaginable proportions, affecting populations well beyond the boundaries of Ukraine and Russia.
Military activity around the Chernobyl nuclear site and within the Exclusion Zone is also of great concern. Reports are coming in showing elevated rates of radiation stirred up by the presence of troops, tanks and heavy equipment moving through the highly radioactively contaminated region, which is closed to regular human habitation. In April 2020, when a major wildfire consumed the area, radiation levels rose by 16 times.
The occupation of the site by Russian military personnel, reportedly the result of a firefight at the plant site, is already a concern. This takeover has called a halt to all activities on the site, which houses a significant inventory of radioactive waste.
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