edit: changed title from ‘False Fukushima Fears’ to ‘Exaggerated Fukushima Fears’, sacrificing my lovely alliteration as others have pointed out that it would be too much to say that the fears of radiation leakages are unfounded, but merely to say that this is the least bad option given previous precedent as cynesthesia has pointed out.
Image is of the large array of water storage tanks holding the tritium-contaminated water.
This week’s preamble is very kindly provided by our beautiful poster @cynesthesia@hexbear.net, with some light editing. In periods where not much of earth-shattering importance is happening in the news, I hope to do this more often!
In 2011, the Fukushima nuclear incident occurred. Since then, water has been used to cool radioactive waste and debris, which contaminates the water with radioactive isotopes. Currently, TEPCO, the Japanese energy company that is reponsible to Fukushima, is storing about 1.3 million m3 of contaminated water (equivalent to about 500 Olympic swimming pools for our American friends) in about 1000 tanks. Approximately 100,000 m3 of contaminated cooling water is generated per year to this day. TEPCO doesn’t want to store escalating volumes of nuclear waste for decades until half-lives are spent. This would mean adding substantial storage capacity every year at increased cost and risk of tank spills.
The contaminated water includes heavier isotopes like caesium as well as hydrogen’s isotope, tritum. Caesium is a big atom at 137 molar mass (we love our tremendous atoms, folks) while tritium is heavy hydrogen and has only a molar mass of 3 (pathetic, low energy). The TEPCO people are using water treatment to remove heavy isotopes from water, but not tritium. The large adult isotopes are easy to remove with treatment but tritium is incorporated into water, so it blends in with the others. The treated Fukushima water contains low levels of the big isotopes but still contains tritium.
Isotopes release radiation that damages the body’s cells. The longer an individual molecule containing an isotope is in a body, the more likely it is that the isotope will go BRAZAP and release radiation that fucks up the cells. Bioaccumulation is a toxicology term for how certain contaminants can accumulate in the food cycle. For example, algae eat contaminants, then the algae is eaten by bugs, then bugs by fish, then fish by people. Isotopes that are bioaccumulative like our large adult son caesium are more hazardous. Tritium is not bioaccumulative because it is effectively part of water. Water cycles through bodies quickly - that’s why you sweat and pee and get thirsty. 
Fukushima water would be treated and then then mixed with seawater at a ratio of 1:800 before it is pumped 1km offshore. Each year approximately 166,000 m3 of treated water will be released, which will draw down the volume of contaminated water being stored over a few decades. Real-time stats associated with the release are found here. At the point of discharge, water contains about 207 Bq/L of radioactivity, about 16 times greater than the 10-15 Bq/L background level in the ocean overall. Drinking water guidelines for tritium radioactivity range from 1,000-10,000 Bq/L, if one were to drink seawater.
In wastewater treatment terms, this is a small amount of dilution in a very large body of water. It is unlikely to have any measurable impact per the terms of Western science. In the context of mother nature taking yet another one for the team and environmental distress, this sucks. In the context of making the best of a shitty situation, the Fukushima water release is peanuts compared to the many other environmental liabilities that are not addressed. For example, the Hanford Site is an example of a nuclear wastewater storage facility gone/going wrong in Oregon.
Ending note by 72: By far the biggest impact of the release of this water won’t be its direct effects, but those on commerce and international relations. Almost half of Japanese aquatic exports go to China, comprising 8% of all Japanese firms shipping goods to China, and they have now been cut off due to their anger at Japan. Perhaps this reaction and the cancellation of imports was inevitable, as nuclear power and radiation in general is a poorly understood, frightening, and thus easily exploitable topic in every country. China is not the first country to use a misunderstanding of radiation risk to try and achieve a goal - Germany seems very pleased with itself - and they will not be the last.
In all: it is unequivocal that China is massively exaggerating the risks of this water’s release. However, the bellicose rhetoric and actions of Japan, South Korea, and America are a much greater danger to the region, and none of the three seem to be in any hurry to try diplomacy instead of increasing military budgets and gearing up for war.
It’s that time again - every two months I give myself a week off, to rest and recalibrate. Your regularly scheduled programming will resume next week.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Last week’s discussion post.
🚨🚨 Coup underway in Gabon and looks like it has mostly succeeded
Instability in Gabon even more damaging to French imperialism than Niger in a way. Niger has been battling instability for decades due to constant military shenanigans and jihadists swooping in and out. Gabon on the other hand has been extraordinarily stable under the military dictatorship of French lapdogs Omar Bongo and Ali Bongo. Omar Bongo was president for 42 years and did nothing but enrich himself, his friends and French companies. Infant mortality is shockingly high for example, while the oil boom money was used for a 800m presidential palace and mansions in the French countryside. When he died in 2009, power was transferred to his equally corrupt son Ali Bongo. The seeds of discontent were already planted in 2016, when Ali Bongo was reelected in a hilariously corrupt election and there were large protests across the country, which ended after a violent crackdown by the military. Good day for us Hexbears, an L for France is a W for humanity
my face when the liberal starts pulling out wikipedia links in an argument and tells me to read them (my entire world view has been obliterated and I have no choice but to abandon communism):
The “Russian claims of ethnic cleansing” Wikipedia page (which already, why not just have “ethnic cleansing in Ukraine”? Why does it matter where the claims come from all of a sudden?) Has an introductory text that fails to provide a single citation
which already, why not just have “ethnic cleansing in Ukraine”? Why does it matter where the claims come from all of a sudden
So having obsessively read over Wikipedia talk pages when the Bolivian coup was happening, the smokescreen they use is that they only report what reputable sources have already reported. The sources need to be mainstream/successful. This immediately removes a ton of dissent. Even if the reports are demonstrably untrue, pointing that out or saying anything about it in the article is considered “original research” or “original work” or something, which isn’t permitted.
So the Bolivian coup, where the civilian president left after threats from a military leader and said there was a coup, and that’s a matter of public record, was just called a “constitutional crisis” by wapo and nyt and all the usual suspects, even though they admitted to those facts so you have to call it a crisis, not a coup. If you point out that a military leader telling a president to get out of the country and then allowing an opposition leader to become president is a coup by definition and that the “reliable sources” reported that you’re “doing original research.”
Similarly American journalists consistently call the CPC the CCP, so it’s the standard name on Wikipedia even though it’s a derogatory exonym and we know the preferred name. Of course the real reason is that we want to insult and degrade enemies of the West and whitewash and glorify our allies at all times.
Does anybody have good writeup of why this behaviour is laughable? I’m kinda sick of having to explain it anew every time
I’m a regular Wikipedia editor. The “reliable sources” that are cited in articles are nearly all corporate. If NBC News, owned by Comcast, said that China is authoritarian, than China is authoritarian. If the Washington Post, owned by Bezos, said that US prisons were humanitarian, then that is the fact. Published history texts make up most of the discussion about history, but the history field is littered with obvious propagandists like Robert Conquest and Anne Applebaum. There’s hardly anything stopping a right-wing, corporate funded think-tank like the Heritage Foundation from becoming another citation. Freedom House’s work with the State Department and CIA is well known, why do they deserve the same spot as PhD writing papers from universities??
that you have the patiencedeleted by creator
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Yeah I know, I’m just tired of walking them thru why Wikipedia in general and their article in particular is not good. Most of the time I just link them to the story of the one woman combating Nazis, but I’d like something more comprehensive
Maybe there should be a dedicated article on ProleWiki.
Wikipedia authors cite news media rather than actual, fact-supported, peer-reviewed science or first-party sources.
Bit off topic, but Germany denied my asylum application even tho I learned to code and have a job (westoids won’t let mfer stay even when it’s in their interest), which means most likely I’ll be sent to the army back home cuz I dodged it. Would be insane if at the peak of my life I end up on some telegram channel being blown to pieces by a Turkish drone, while reddiors watch it on r/combatfootage and make jokes.
Has anyone else noticed an uptick in federated lemmy-users coming in to Hexbear threads and posting what I can only describe as a sequel to Mein Kampf when it comes to any news about the war? Like I figured most of the lemmy nerds had left, since they’re redditors at heart and redditors can’t keep themselves focused for more than a few minutes at a time.
Difference may be that we live rent-free in their heads. Always have (see malding over r/CTH)
Genzedong too
I mean, its in the name (FEDeration).
Bit idea: Doing land acknowledgement of western Ukraine being occupied native Polish lands
My grandmother was Polish and born in Lwów. When she passed, my father spelled it Lviv in her obituary, and I had to refrain myself from laughing and telling him she would be upset he spelled it the Ukrainian way lol.
It’s just factually incorrect anyway. She was born in Lwów, Poland, not Lviv, Ukraine. And there was never such a thing as Lviv, Poland.
If you’ve got a date in Constantinople, she’ll be waiting in Istanbul
Bugeac belongs to Moldova! Cernăuți is Romanian! Lwów is occupied Poland! Kárpátalja is Hungary!
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Most debatebro lib: the real issue here is that the Nazis appropriated pure and good Ukrainian antisemitism.
The real Nazis are the Russians, because, well, I said so
Going to Prigo’s funeral and slapping a “I Did That” Biden
sticker on his coffin.But enough about Ukraine, here’s the real important news:
‘Conserve food and water’: No access in or out of Burning Man after storm
Burning Man conditions are bordering on disaster with over 70,000 people trapped and sheltering-in-place after rains turned the playa into an undrivable mud pit.
To celebrate one year of Joe Bidens America blowing up it’s allies infrastructure and getting away with it virtually clean, I demand awarding a month-long maximum ultra cuck status to Olaf Scholz in the Chad-cuck rankings.
It’s so baffling living in Germany, I’m still weirded out how nobody is even talking about it. “uhm yeah, that happened, was probably Russia, nevermind we didn’t need it anyway…”
@JoeBiden After Vietnam, we learned how the harmful effects of exposure to Agent Orange took years to manifest in veterans, leaving too many unable to access care when they needed and deserved it.
The PACT Act means today’s veterans and their families won’t suffer those painful denials.
After the Holocaust, we learned how the harmful effects of exposure to Zyklon B took years to manifest in concentration camp guards, leaving too many unable to access care when they needed and deserved it.
NYT “Matter of Opinion” podcast:
Is it time to negotiate with Putin?
We’re past the fairy tale stage of the war in Ukraine. How does it end?lmao at least they admit it’s been a fairy tale this whole time.
NAFOs malding that Russia… built a school.
I felt sick to my stomach after listening to the school principal brag about the school providing additional education and some new incredible activity clubs that Mariupol didn’t have before for free.
Yeah, how horrible of them. That’s absolutely evil!
What the heck does it even means? Additional endogcrination?
endogcrination
The $&@# build a school on top of the building they destroyed!
Because they’re just supposed to leave an empty lot there?
been thinking about our (and my) blindspots, like with Gabon for instance, and maybe we should have a newsmega theory list
I would imagine it being a few of the regular bits and pieces of Marx and Lenin and others, State and Revolution, etc, enough to have an understanding of geopolitics and imperialism in the abstract without getting too deep into the weeds of arguments between long-dead theorists about the French Revolution and 1848, together with newer things like Hudson’s Superimperialism and Desai’s Geopolitical Economy, Bevins’ Jakarta Method perhaps as we’d want to talk about how socialist movements are destroyed abroad. and then books that explicitly deal with different parts of the world. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa for instance.
should make sure to have a lot of, if not mostly, specific works on countries or small regions, especially if they aren’t already well-known rather than too many broad-brush works (though those are crucial too). analysis of West Africa, even specific countries there. analysis of central asian states. analysis of central american countries. books and essays ideally, but also long-form articles, even videos.
