tv [untitled] March 12, 2013 11:30am-12:00pm EDT
11:30 am
well the continued use of nuclear energy around the world i was joined earlier by jim nuclear policy analyst at greenpeace i first asked him about the complicity of tepco japan's main power company in the disaster here's what he had to say. you know one of the problems the g.e. reactors for quite some time in the one nine hundred seventy. that our own regulators knew that if there were an accident a meltdown that containment was ninety percent likely to fail if you see what's actually happened in japan their failure rate is actually one hundred percent and we've known that and we tried to make fixes and the industry has stopped us as the industry was stopped in japan as well and again we knew that if the last line of defense if it came down to that the public wouldn't be protected and that's exactly what happened in japan and talk about the reports that just came out from greenpeace talking about this g.e. fukushima well you know the people that made the reactor are held accountable the way the walls are set up it protects corporations rather than people so the people
11:31 am
pay the price of getting dosed with radiation having to evacuate their land you have over one hundred sixty thousand individuals who can't go back and the area the size of the state of south carolina that's contaminated and so we think that the people who actually contributed to the accident should actually pay for some of the costs tepco has been bailed out but g.e. has not paid one cent for an accident that they helped and contribute to causing what is this legal loophole preventing genes from being accountable at all the nuclear industry never would have gotten into the game because splitting atoms is inherently dangerous activity they never would have split atoms in the first place if the government's didn't say listen you will be held accountable if something goes wrong and so all the laws with probably the exception of india and they're trying to fight you know hillary clinton letters were fighting to get india to change their law. so all the laws were written. based on the u.s.
11:32 am
law that basically holds the manufacturer harmless while holding the people that run the plant accountable the problem is they go bankrupt and it's basically hitting upon the taxpayer either in japan or here to pick up the tab it is amazing that such an egregious lack of accountability in such a dangerous climate i mean it absurd no other product out there can be made defectively cause harm and then the manufacturer be held harmless. to justice system and as we know it let's talk more about g.e. and its sister reactors here in the u.s. i mean in the twenty's right i mean how many sister reactors are we talking about here of almost near identical design and is there anything g.'s doing in the wake of to prevent something like this from happening in fact the nuclear lobbyists are running around capitol hill getting people to sign letters trying to prevent our regulators from actually improving the situation we knew this is
11:33 am
a problem we put in vents to vent the radiation out of the containment but they don't want to put filters on that to protect the public from the radiation and they were lou it was a letter from david vitter in the senate and fred upton in the house telling the n.r.c. to back off regulations that would protect the public from getting dosed by radiation now that's not exactly the role that senators and congressmen are supposed to play when they're doing oversight of the nuclear issue they're supposed to enforce the laws not try to downplay the significance of problems and make them go away and we see this time and time again with different regulatory agencies the f.d.a. michael tanner you know vice president monsanto now running food safety i mean is there someone in the industry that's preventing this kind of regulation from happening or is it just a revolving door and conflicts of interest with taking the money they're going long history at the n.r.c. of regulatory capture. back in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight there was a and. article written on the inner cities coziness with industry written by
11:34 am
oversight committees and threads history the n.r.c. has had a habit of siding with the regulated rather than the public. and they kind of confuse the fact that they're supposed to working for us rather for the nuclear industry we believe it will talk about a hannaford of washington the most contaminated site in the country right now devastating what's happening there did even have an expiration date on the tanks that are holding this waste is an example of the danger facing nuclear energy as side from if that natural disaster happens like an earthquake or tsunami we have to differentiate and for from commercial nuclear power hampered is our old weapons facilities and for years they were pouring you know you know a witch's brew over you active waste into these tanks that were boiling cesium burping hydrogen and leaking into the columbia river at one point they tried to linguistically detoxify the waste by just changing the definition so they could
11:35 am
actually throw concrete on top and senator maria cantwell actually went and filibustered it to try to get them to actually address it touches conscientiously. it is a serious problem it is part of the long term legacy that we're going to have to deal with on both our bomb project and with our commercial reactors we don't have a plan for dealing with the waste that we've created both from the bomb project and from commercial nuclear power and there's building up on river valleys on the ocean fronts across the country i think is important yes thank you for making that distinction it's not it's the manufacturing of this nuclear technology but then again you brought up the point of the waste which is really that's where we can draw. the. the similarities between the two sides and the waste never goes away i mean almost for millennia at last on the ground i mean people talk about nuclear energy as clean and theory it's perfect until you talk about dealing with the waste and the. for these devastating disasters bracers some of this there
11:36 am
radiation is invisible doesn't mean it's clean and it's very easy to lie about something that you can't see. it's pretty unconscionable right now that people are talking that no one has been hurt yet by fukushima because cancer takes ten to thirty years to advance itself it's only been two. you already have pre-cancerous thyroid conditions in a lot of children around fukushima prefecture and just like we saw after church noble those will eventually events themselves as thyroid cancer. we don't know the scale of the you know the tragedy at fukushima and we won't for some time which is why at greenpeace we're working to try to hold general electric and. high toci into sheba accountable for the harm that they've caused and you can go to our website and sign a petition to try to hold these corporations accountable because the governments aren't sure we can sign a petition but what else can we do because it really does seem helpless especially
11:37 am
when you're talking about the total collusion with the nuclear industry in the regulatory agencies i mean well is there anything else that we can do of course the way the way you can actually you know work against the industry in whatever your level of comfort is you can act like greenpeace and take it to the streets you can lobby your congressmen that can help because there are good people up there that want to see nuclear power regulated like you know ed markey you may become a senator. there are people that want to see nuclear power regulated and again we should phase out nuclear power we should replace it with clean alternatives that don't threaten our families homes and our communities and let's talk about international stage in a post because you're talking about wean off of nuclear energy i completely one hundred percent agree i think it's technological insanity to be doing this with the debt potentially devastating consequences to humanity and the environment but what are people doing internationally what are some countries doing i know that there are some countries who have taken the initiative to totally wean off and replace it with clean energy so. the germans shut down eight of their nuclear reactors and
11:38 am
decided to phase out the rest in italy they voted to keep themselves nuclear free and ninety four percent of the public voted to reject a referendum to build nuclear power plants in this country you have certain corporations that are building nuclear plants but only because they're being subsidized by the american taxpayer the american taxpayer is taking on the risk that wall street wasn't willing to take that these corporations aren't willing to take and the way they can fight against that is to get in touch with their local legislators that the public service commissions that regulate their electric rates those are the people making the decision about whether or not they're there buddy is going to be wasted on things like nuclear power or put into something like solar or wind that we can actually bring on could be affordable and it doesn't threaten us with a nuclear disaster i know people watching is going to say it's not feasible it's not possible to to have completely clean energy in this country is that it certainly is i mean there's been there been studies going back decades showing that
11:39 am
there are paths to get there we ourselves did a report not so long ago showing you know the clean energy pathway to and the energy revolution it's doable the technology is here now. and it's less expensive than going nuclear you know there's a reactor that duke energy wants to build down in florida for the you know the cost is twenty four billion dollars you can get a lot of like tricity for twenty four billion dollars fortunately the lobbying effort isn't as strong as the worst things for the environment are let's talk about the conflict of interest having g.e. and part only in i mean we're talking about giant media organizations here and that's n.b.c. n.b.c. do you think that that infringes on our ability to learn the truth about nuclear energy to learn the truth about these thing i think they may have spun off their nuclear unit because i think it's now g.i. toci so there may not be any association with the former n.b.c. . network. and. not sure whether there's been
11:40 am
a bias in that in their reporting because of it i know in general nuclear has been always thought to be an official government technology so it's always gotten a little benefit of the doubt now at the same time when things go wrong and they go catastrophic lee wrong. you know the mainstream media is pretty good at covering the disaster story they're not very good at following up on the story and seeing what happens afterwards where people are still suffering and basically those corporations that caused the disaster or are being held accountable well certainly we need to hold these corporations accountable for the sake of humanity and the environment and for all future generations thank you so much jim riccio your policy analyst for greenpeace a pleasure every time thank you feel like you see so far check us out on who we are dot com breaking up the set there you can watch the latest episode of the show like last friday's which featured some political laughs and ahem expose you can also scroll through and watch about every show we've done the middle of the summer so go
11:41 am
to who favored us and comment on how we're doing and who dot com breaking the set now if you can break from my preaching for now but stay tuned to hear more on fukushima two years later next. wealthy british style. sometimes. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports on our. sick day like here. it's very profitable to invest in colombia. with that very profit out of them is
11:42 am
a very high return on investment. is good knowing that he has said that i've been working in this area for thirty years and i've always had to pay the armed groups when they needed betis and you did not have managers who changed their name and strategy but to still the same murderous. high ranking suspects give no comment are you upset about that mr president is soon. to president putin. both the media. i won't give an interview i'm sorry but no. investigation is a dead. end he says sick and stop your bullshit and keep quiet or else you'll suffer the consequences. even us and your bodyguards to watch themselves because the same goes for them. ribs from goats since
11:43 am
i've never heard of such a case as ours are so much money and gold has scope for so many years. for all the gold in colombia on our t.v. . so let's continue talking about fukushima two years later an anniversary that isn't passing under the radar in japan in fact just yesterday tens of thousands took to the streets in tokyo to protest against nuclear power since the tragedy struck in two thousand and eleven one hundred sixty thousand people have fled their homes around the plant turning a once vibrant coastal area into a ghost town but even worse than displacement of thousands is the newfound reality that the meltdown in fukushima is beginning to yield detrimental health effects are due to a new report released this past summer over one third of the children in disaster zone have abnormal thyroid growths almost definitely due to high radiation exposure so could this all have been minimized or even avoided entirely the topic my next
11:44 am
guest has explored in his latest documentary three alive and surviving japan take a look. give us a book that's that the most do you see. the force of the one guy or did you know it's easy. to do when your family must. give us and see the little you the ones in the. deal with those fish that you get to see me not to understand you. still go to the do you know what does it do you understand you when you do you know i don't even. remember it's the same one i remember when the. women coming down. to new lows when you could smuggle the most with. you and you know they do. so here to talk about his experience
11:45 am
in fukushima in the mismanagement and cover up of the nuclear crisis i'm joined by the director of himself christopher nolan thank you so much for joining me chris thank you so what inspired you to go to fukushima did you know that you wanted to make the movie before you went to help. i did not actually i had already been living in japan. so what inspired you to go to the disaster site. i knew from the beginning that the truth was not being told and i wanted to find out i wanted to find out for other people so that i could help empower them what did you feel like was being uncovered and what did you what was kind of the biggest things that you wanted covered through your investigation of what wasn't being told to the public. what was not being told to the public was the health effects or concerns it was definitely being downplayed and. you know throughout the journey i learned. the extent of the canal nation was a lot worse than what anybody had said i mean yeah i mean as we just said earlier i
11:46 am
mean we're starting to see thyroid problems and also obesity from people going to free to leave their house now but i mean two years is not too soon to really assess the health effects that will undoubtedly be unfolding for decades. well i mean we've had other nuclear accidents and you know people do know what you know can happen so i don't really see the reason for kind of waiting around to see what will happen with this one i mean we kind of know there's going to be people are going to get cancer eventually. all right in your documentary i saw that geiger counters were actually held hostage is what happen there. well i got that from the manami stony city councilmen he said that they the city did not receive like i counted from customs for some reason because in his quote he said they didn't want the people to measure for themselves they just wanted
11:47 am
everybody to go by the official government readings which were not quite so accurate you know they wanted to pretend like the radiation all landed in a circle you know in thirty kilometers and it didn't affect anything else which is you know far from the truth. yeah i mean of course we know you know it's all part of the cover up really of the extent of the damage at the your investigation chris what did you find in regards to collusion between the nuclear industry and the government. what i found is that the government. is supported a lot by the nuclear industry there. so especially the conservative party is i want to say the fund about seventy percent of their campaigns. and i have followed up with the people that you talk to there chris i mean talk about what fukushima's like today. well you have a lot of problems i mean you know people can't evacuate some people are still in
11:48 am
denial i mean they've lived there for you know generations and generations so the thought of just leaving and leaving their lifestyle is very difficult and you know some people still want to farm they think they can do that. families have been torn apart it's really really difficult the children can't go outside by this old rule for more than you know three hours because of the radiation and it's tough. unfortunately i was still reading reports today even saying you know the state of radiation is. bad then than it was previously told i mean it's not as bad as people think i mean it's just unbelievable kind of the downplaying in the media still two years later which as you said we don't see the effects of this for decades still i mean to kind of dismiss this as oh it's over it's not really a big deal anymore is totally outrageous chris let's talk about the state of nuclear energy in japan because i know probably
11:49 am
a big reason why the government was pushing forward and kind of censoring the extent of the damages and the truth was to push forward with their agenda to continue nuclear energy i mean what are they doing right now to push forward that agenda. well they're trying to convince the public to restart the reactors not only to keep nuclear energy in japan but they want to be able to sell it and you're the technology to other countries like saudi arabia and just because access to. and what's happening right now i know that there was a massive protest on the streets yesterday are we still seeing kind of revolt against. the people in japan really want nuclear power to be on again. obviously for obvious reasons i mean they live at the conversion of four tectonic plates it's a very very bad place to have nuclear power plants. bad for everyone chris and so your films from airing tonight around the country where can people find out more
11:50 am
information on where to see it. three one one survive in japan dot com all right thank you so much for your time for coming on christopher nolan director of three one one surviving japan really emotional trailer account to see the full film. right thank you. you may remember hearing reports of radioactive milk in the u.s. in the wake of the fukushima meltdown well not surprisingly the government and media downplayed the fallout and said that the low dose of radiation occurring in milk was not a level of public concern but as many experts have pointed out no dose of radiation however small can be described as safe and fact not enough is known in general about low dose of radiation to make such sweeping conclusions so let's break this whole milk thing now. one of the most dangerous elements released from the nuclear
11:51 am
meltdown was iodine one thirty one now this is to be distinguished from regular iodine intake which is critical to how the thyroid gland functions in the human body and milk is a great source of iodine but here's where it becomes a problem when we ingest the milk contaminated with the radioactive iodine our bodies don't know the difference this element that and builds up in the thyroid gland and causes in a ray of irregularities including cancer and in fact some people point to milk as a potential culprit to the rise of thyroid abnormalities of children in fukushima but even if this overexposure isn't directly affecting you there are plenty of other reasons to be concerned with milk consumption but you would never know it because we grow up in a country and dr nade with the notion that milk does a body good take a look. so
11:52 am
i know. i'm a people person but. look like. they're bringing supplies milk chocolate milk. else. yes we've all seen a ghost zillion got milk commercials but let's really think about this for a second is milk even natural humans not only unique we drink milk from other mammals but we're the only mammals that continue drinking milk into our adult lives but despite the does bizarre nature of this quarterly acceptable people aren't even able to digest it check this out a whopping thirty three percent of americans are lactose intolerant but only thirteen percent of adults in the us don't drink milk so that means sixty two
11:53 am
million two hundred thousand people are drinking milk that they can't digest but that's not all in fact in a study of twenty different countries high milk consumption correlated directly with higher heart disease and type one diabetes don't even get me started on the dairy industry in one thousand and seventy one cow to produce ninety nine thousand seven hundred pounds of milk now that same cow produces nineteen thousand why well because of all the growth hormones that are being pumped into these animals ones that we ultimately consume the intake of these hormones is leading to early puberty and women and prostate cancer in men. and that's not to mention the fact that one glass of milk has the same saturated fat content as a box of french fries or the same calories as a bottle of soda but don't worry the dairy industry is on top of it which is why
11:54 am
they're lobbying the f.d.a. to approve a low calorie milk option featuring none other than my favorite artificial sweetener aspartame yep the controversial chemical that will sweeten milk in a way that will make it even more appealing to kids corner the industry the move would promote more healthful eating and reduce childhood obesity but wait is that really the case a recent brazilian university's study shows aspartame actually causes greater weight gain and regular sugar because the intake of empty calories in your body makes you crave more food. and here's the real kicker dairy corporations want to make this change without you even knowing it which is why they're currently petitioning the f.d.a. to alter the classification of milk all of course to avoid having to give this new chemical cocktail name other than the established milk brand so while milk
11:55 am
may seem wholesome while the industry might claim to have your best interests at heart pretty obvious that this is not the case the milk industry is only concerned with profit just like every other business that's why we need to do ourselves a favor here turn off the t.v. shut off the propaganda start asking the tough questions forget the got milk what we should be asking is got truth.
11:56 am
11:57 am
11:58 am
25 Views
Uploaded by TV Archive on
![](http://athena.archive.org/0.gif?kind=track_js&track_js_case=control&cache_bust=1827613646)