Fukushima's sting: cancer diagnoses among US sailors

Remember how our valiant Navy seamen took part in the Fukushima rescue mission after the tsunami caused a nuclear disaster? (You may have forgotten; the American news media did.)

The sailors were stationed aboard the USS Ronald Reagan as they performed their rescue duties. Now, many are being diagnosed with various forms of cancer. (Bolding ahead is mine.)

Crew members, many of whom are in their 20s, have been diagnosed with conditions including thyroid cancer, testicular cancer and leukemia. The Department of Defense says the Navy took "proactive measures" in order to "mitigate the levels of Fukushima-related contamination on U.S. Navy ships and aircraft” and that crew members were not exposed to dangerous radiation levels.

Charles Bonner, attorney for the sailors, says the radiation the USS Ronald Reagan crew was exposed to extended beyond the tasks of Operation Tomodachi. Deployed ships desalinate their own water, so crew members were unknowingly drinking, cooking with, and bathing in contaminated water due to the ship's close proximity to the disaster site, according to Bonner. The USS Reagan was ultimately informed of the contamination after a month of living approximately 10 miles offshore from the affected region.

I had to find out about this through Al Jazeera because the American media are beholden to industries that make zillions of dollars from nuclear energy. Therefore, one mustn't say anything bad about nuclear energy -- even after a disaster like Fukushima. It would be a mortal sin to talk about it. Shhhhhhh.

What's wrong with this picture?

From Reuter's today:

Japan's biggest utility estimated around 4,720 trillion becquerels of cesium-137 and iodine-131 was released into the Pacific Ocean between March 21 and April 30, but researchers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) put the amount at 15,000 trillion becquerels, or terabecquerels.

Government regulations ban shipment of foodstuff containing over 500 becquerels of radioactive material per kg.

Michio Kaku on Fukushima

New York's Daily News today has an interview with Michio Kaku, the physicist, about Fukushima raising the threat level to 7, equal to Chernobyl. Here's an excerpt:

"Chernobyl went through 600,000 workers, with each spending just a short time at the site to avoid radiation sickness. Everyone got a medal," he said. "Many of the workers (at Fukushima) don't even know how much radiation they've absorbed. Some of them are going to die. They've probably received the lethal amount of radiation already."

I've never heard about the 600,000 workers they cycled through Chernobyl. I'd love to read a comprehensive book about what happened there. For instance, how did this work out? Have those 600,000 workers remained healthy? And what on Earth will happen to the Japanese people who lived close to Fukushima Dai'ichi?

Brave workers still toiling at Fukushima Dai-ichi

Hat tip to Annie, who sent me a link to this story. It's called "Japanese tsunami survivor returns to help save nuclear plant". Note that once again, the good articles are coming from outside the United States. This one is in the West Australian.

These heroic workers are willingly taking on a suicide mission to help save their country. I call that newsworthy. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Three weeks after watching a massive wave smash into the Fukushima nuclear plant, Hiroyuki Kohno is heading back to the disaster zone to join crews struggling to avert a meltdown.

The 44-year-old radiation controller, who has worked in the nuclear industry since his late teens, has taken on a job many others have declined, with a clear understanding that the mission will likely be the last of his career.

Why don't we see articles like this in US newspapers? I don't understand this lapse. It's such a compelling story yet we only find comprehensive coverage of the nuclear crisis in foreign newspapers. American "news" is officially a joke now. We can't do anything right.