Haven't heard about this? Gee, I wonder why.

Nearly three years after the destruction of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, at least 70 U.S. Navy sailors who participated in relief efforts after the accident have been suffering from radiation sickness and even cancer as the crew of the USS Ronald Reagan was exposed to fallout.

Seventy. And yet most American media sources have been silent on this topic (which has been known for weeks; I posted about it when the news initially came out). These media sources apparently believe that they can't report on this situation. After all, it might upset rich nuclear industry reps, and we can't have that. No siree. This is America, where the rich can get away with anything.

“I was standing on the flight deck, and we felt this warm gust of air, and, suddenly, it was snowing,” sailor Lindsay Cooper told the New York Post in an interview published Monday. The metallic-tasting snow was caused by the freezing Pacific air that mixed with the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima power plant that was wrecked in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The USS Ronald Reagan, the ship these sailors were on, was literally sucking radioactive water into its desalination system, and spewing it out of faucets and showers. As a result, 70 US sailors are sick with various forms of cancer, all the result of radiation poisoning. And no one's talking about it. (Well, except for the Post, which is a rightwing, nutjob publication in NY. I guess they think it's bad for Obama, which makes it their duty to cover the story. But who knows? Wingnut publications don't operate on a rational basis.)
 

I can't imagine how these sailors feel. Their country sent them on a suicide mission without telling them the risks. Does some of the blame lie with the Japanese operators of the plant, who were tut-tutting and saying all was safe? Absolutely. But that doesn't let the Navy off the hook. It was a suicide mission carried out with innocent participants who had no clue about the dangers they faced.

 

Hat-tip to Artichoke Annie.