Radiation in Our Food

After watching this presentation at symposium about the consequences of Fukushima, I am given yet another reason to worry about the food that I am putting in my body. Cindy Folkers, a specialist in radiation and health, outlines the dangers of the radiation from Fukushima (and radiation in general) as well as current shortcomings in monitoring and what she and Beyond Nuclear are trying to do about it.

Stories, Threads in Tohoku and Fukushima

Thinking about stories this week, I've already read quite a few recollections either through news stories or books about how people viewed the disaster and the days following. This week I decided to watch some documentaries as well because much like the Haiti earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, etc.

3/11 Citizens/Government

So I was leaping along— leap... leap... leap...when during my duties as a librarian I auspiciously (or do I mean suspiciously? Probably a combination of both) stumbled across this book: Citizens, Experts, and the Environment: The Politics of Local Knowledge.

3/11 - Some of the politics of nuclear power, Japan

In trying to understand the situation in Japan I have started reading Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan edited by Jeff Kingston. It is a compilation of essays published in 2012 in a quick response to the disaster at Fukushima. On March 3, 2011 a 9.0 Mw earthquake hit Japan off of the northeast coast near the Iwate prefecture.

What /is/ nuclear power?

To start off my series of posts I got a general sense of how nuclear power functions by browsing around on the internet. I actually found a nice and concise explanation and illustration here. Essentially uranium atoms are split to produce heat, the heat creates steam that turns a turbine to create electricity. The steam is then condensed and can go back through the process again. To get a very general sense of other types of power I found a relatively comprehensive (and probably skewed) website here that is in favor of nuclear energy.