From Fukushima to San Onofre

Cathy Iwane

Cathy Iwane is a native of California, who has lived in Wakayama, Japan for 25 years. Ashtanga Yoga keeps Cathy vibrant & healthy; presently, she’s studying to become a yoga teacher.

The nuclear meltdown in Fukushima on 3/11 has propelled Cathy into nuclear activist mode attending protests, promoting petitions & translating developments into English/Japanese to educate the international community.

In Japan, I lived 641km from the continuing meltdowns in Fukushima, Japan. A good friend’s children living near me tested positive for Cesium 134 & 137 in urine analyses. Her school board and PTA would not allow her to share this information publicly. Instead, they insisted that the milk and school lunches were “safe” and not irradiated. Likewise, the school which my daughter attended would NOT entertain any debate on whether our school lunches were contaminated, despite my research on ingredients in those school lunches which came from northeastern Japan. Despite my geiger measurements on some local foods showing contamination. We were forced to lie to students and faculty that my daughter had food allergies and so she brought a homemade lunch since May, 2011. The schools officials in Japan are gagged by national government and must spew ‘party line rhetoric’ that all is safe and okay….lest they risk their jobs.

All IS NOT OKAY! ALL is NOT okay in California or in the US, either, due to Fukushima fallout . Please, take a day to research the effects of the continuing nuclear meltdowns on the food supply, the water and the air in Japan. By continuing to create nuclear waste through nuclear power, we only create more and more uninhabitable areas on our planet. What kind of a world do you want your children and their children to inherit?

The answer is clear and easy. San Onofre only supplies 14% of southern California’s energy needs. It has been offline since February of this year. We no longer need this WWII era antiquated, terribly risky, super expensive, completely unsustainable form of energy. Why restart San Onofre? The answer lies ONLY in corporate profit and in averting a TINY conservation effort on our part.