We are the kings, let’s rage like kings!

Lee Won-young,
Nuclear Risk Public Information Center (PRCDN) Steering Committee

Announcing the October Stop Nuclear Wastewater Dumping March in the US

Since the advent of nuclear power, the world has been turned upside down. In less than a hundred years. The science and technology used as war weapons have expanded into industrial money-making, which is nuclear power plants. Under the pretext of ‘peaceful use,’ they are producing ‘unprocessable nuclear waste.’ Electricity use is fleeting, but nuclear waste is semi-permanent.

The problem is that there is no way to solve this in principle. Theoretical physicist Jang Hoe-ik (Professor Emeritus, Physics, Seoul National University) asserts. “A nuclear power plant is a device that we must realize the contradictory situation of completely blocking the world of extreme opposition, life and nuclear chain reaction, while also creating a passageway to extract energy. And since all devices collapse in front of nuclear power, not only is complete blocking impossible, but any material that comes into contact with it also becomes a nuclear hazard. Therefore, a nuclear power plant that claims to operate a device that is theoretically impossible to operate, which is called perfect safety, is a contradictory attempt. In this situation, approaching perfect safety requires infinite cost and effort.”

Professor Jang then said, “Even if we manage to manage it without causing an accident for ten thousand years, not just a hundred years, how can we calculate the price of suffering that our descendants will have to endure while standing guard over this nuclear waste for ten thousand years? It would probably be like a heavenly punishment to our descendants.”

We have already committed a crime under the pretext of ‘peaceful use of nuclear power.’ And we continue to do so.

The only thing that can stop the capitalist power from pursuing profit is the resistance of the people.

Capital has no choice but to pursue profit. It has already been 70 years since international financial capital monopolized uranium mines and exclusively supplied nuclear fuel rods to over 400 nuclear power plants around the world. The flow of making money like that has become a stubborn system. It does not care about those three major accidents.

As a result, a country like Korea has become a nuclear minefield with 25 nuclear power plants. Nuclear mines can explode even if there is a forest fire or a fault in the power transmission line. Not only an earthquake, but even a 5-meter tsunami can cause a crisis. We are living in an extremely dangerous situation. There are limits to pretending that nuclear power is an alternative energy source under the pretext of the climate crisis. It has already been revealed to the world that it has become the cause of the climate crisis, which is heat pollution and load following.

State power has long since become a servant of capital power. Even the United States, the most powerful country, is no exception. Even the UN, a union of nations, has reached its limit. The UN cannot even control its subsidiary organization, the IAEA. If we leave this situation alone, it will reach to a point where even the capitalist powers themselves cannot do anything about it. We need to take a different path now.

The reason the Japanese government intentionally dumps nuclear wastewater

The Japanese government is intentionally dumping nuclear wastewater that can be processed without dumping it. Other methods have already been developed. There are methods that can be processed without dumping it in the ocean, the common home of humanity, and without spending a lot of money. Dr. Masaharu Kawata, a molecular biologist who visited Korea two weeks ago, testifies. He explains that there is a method to effectively process tritium by separating it from nuclear wastewater and solidifying it by utilizing the physical properties of tritium. Why is the Japanese government pushing ahead with the dumping despite the existence of such a plan? He explains. “It is related to the operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, which is under construction in Aomori Prefecture. The plan is to reprocess used nuclear fuel from all nuclear power plants in Japan, producing high-level waste. The problem is the contaminated water, including large amounts of tritium, that will be produced during this process. If the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant starts operating, it will release 20 times more tritium-contaminated water annually than what is currently stored at the Fukushima nuclear plant. If the contaminated water from Fukushima is treated, then, of course, the contaminated water from the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant must also be treated, but doing so would be practically impossible in terms of cost. The Fukushima wastewater issue is essentially a precursor to the operation of the reprocessing plant.”

Kihara Shorin, honorary professor at Kyoto Institute of Technology and a leader of the anti-nuclear movement in the Kyoto region, shares the same opinion. “The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant is planning to release large amounts of tritium and other substances, and they aim to set a precedent with the Fukushima wastewater to justify this large-scale release.”

In other words, nuclear wastewater is an inevitable byproduct of the process of producing plutonium. Plutonium serves as both fuel for nuclear power plants and is a key material for nuclear weapons. It is being justified under the pretext of completing the nuclear fuel cycle of nuclear power plants. Therefore, the operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant signifies that Japan is becoming a nuclear-armed state, and the U.S. The government’s tolerance of Japan’s nuclear wastewater dumping implies its acceptance of this development. In other words, there is a claim that the U.S. is turning Japan into a nuclear-armed state.

However, this behavior, which increases Japan’s potential for nuclear armament, is a significant shift that undermines the foundation of the nuclear umbrella policy that the international community has maintained. This is an issue that must be brought to the attention of the global public and discussed, including within the U.S. Congress. It is utterly strange that the Biden administration is pushing such a change unilaterally.

Even setting aside the issue of nuclear armament, U.S. state governments already hold different views from the federal government on the nuclear wastewater issue. Both New York and Massachusetts have banned even the minimal dumping of nuclear wastewater. The Biden administration’s decision is questionable, and its motives are bound to be scrutinized.

My fellow US citizens and my fellow global comrades
Our true crisis arises when we witness wrongdoing and fail to call it out. The deliberate dumping by the Japanese government is destroying not only the Earth but also our spirits. The U.S. federal government, by tolerating this, is no different. We must respond not with silence, but with protest and retribution. Please, join hands with your children and take to the streets right now. Let’s walk together and protest ‘Stop nuclear wastewater dumping! Stop dumping nuclear wastewater into the ocean!
Fall 2024
Nuclear Waste Water STOP Global Citizens’ March GLOMA

Humanity Held Hostage by Nuclear Power, We Must Use the Nuclear Wastewater

Issue as an Opportunity to Set Things Right Last summer, I marched 1,600 km from Seoul to Tokyo with citizens of Korea and Japan, calling for an end to nuclear wastewater dumping. This year, in June, we held a global citizens’ march in Kyoto and Osaka, and in July, we marched in New York. We also adopted a declaration. On Saturday, October 5th, a month before the U.S. presidential election, we will march through the streets of Los Angeles. Then, on Monday, October 7th, we will march through Washington, D.C. I imagine the sight of global citizens marching together, shouting to stop the dumping of nuclear wastewater.

Our true crisis arises when we witness wrongdoing and fail to call it out. The deliberate dumping by the Japanese government is destroying not only the Earth but also our spirits. The U.S. federal government, by tolerating this, is no different. We must respond not with silence, but with protest and retribution.

In this era, we are kings. The character for “king” (王) does not belong in the palm of an individual’s hand; it resides in the hearts of all of us. We must be enraged. We must rage like kings.

( Related site: http://liferoad.org)

Source: Mindle, a citizen media that changes the world
https://www.mindlenews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=9688

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