Japanese Balloon Attack Almost Interrupted Building First Atomic Bombs

I found this article a while back, while researching the plutonium processing at the Hanford site in 1945. Apparently, the Japanese released thousands of airborne incendiary bombs in effort to aimlessly wreak havoc on the US mainland. “On May 5, 1945, a pregnant woman, Elsie Winters Mitchell, and five children were killed by a bomb near Gearhart Mountain in southern Oregon, the only known civilian deaths in the continental United States in the war.”(Shurkin). One of these balloons in particular, didn’t explode, but draped itself over a power line and momentarily cut power to the Hanford plant, forcing a coal fired generator to kick on in order to avert a meltdown disaster. The aimless targeting of primitive balloon based weapons, versus the continued onslaught of US military forces on the Japanese mainland and eventual dropping of atomic weapons, sheds light on the escalating fears of prolonged war for both sides. If this truly is a game of ethics, then these balloons show that both sides were willing to do whatever it took to end the war with fear instead of firepower.

Article is here: https://www.insidescience.org/news/japanese-balloon-attack-almost-interrupted-building-first-atomic-bombs

Some good articles from The Japan Times

Hey, remember when we mentioned the mass amounts of low-level nuclear waste post-Fukushima and how that was a mess and what the heck they were gonna do about it? Well, conveniently the day after: Sprawling radioactive waste storage facility opens for business in Fukushima
The Japan Times has some good Fukushima articles if you go through the tag (filed under “Keywords”).
A predictable article:
Government, Tepco ordered to pay ¥500 million in damages for Fukushima disaster
And an interesting read:
Battling nuclear demons: Mental health issues haunt those who were the first line of defense after 3/11

Not about Fukushima but it came up:
Greenpeace activists enter French nuclear plant and set off fireworks near spent-fuel pool to show vulnerabilities

uh i found out the hard way that JapanTimes only gives you 5 free articles 🙁 for reference
-Sachi

Futures Panel 1990

Drawing from the philosophy of the Finland facilities toured in Into Eternity and what we’ve discussed in class about the opposite approach -monumental signs used to indicate nuclear waste as “hazard!-pay-attention-yet-don’t”-… I’m starting to write about these semiotic endeavors and critiquing their suppositions for my VCS sci-fi class! I’ve been researching the documents produced by the Futures Panel of the 1990’s, a team of archeologists, linguists, semioticians, etc. hired for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant development project. The team had to probability theorize various societies that would likely lead to “human interference”. Some of the scenarios are super fascinating and sci-fi literature in their own right. Various news outlets recently picked up this history I’ve seen via google search…but, in the PDF from the DOE, Page c-40 of a summary I will attach here outlines a really amusing scenario called A Feminist World, 2091 for 100 years out. It killed me… basically speculates on a female dommed popuation and mass ideology that devalues aggressive male science and therefore ignores the signs at WIPP. Here’s the document
-Elise 🙂

Finding Illinois State-level representatives… and more

Hi all,

If you want to track down the state Senator and state House representative that represent you, go to this website: http://www.elections.il.gov/districtlocator/addressfinder.aspx

Enter your address, let the system find that address, confirm it, and then you’ll get a list with contact information.  If you write to one of these individuals using your Illinois address, your address will be used to confirm that you are a resident of that person’s district, and your letter will be received and counted.

Google “find my representatives” to get similar websites to find who represents your district (either using your Illinois address or another home address in the U.S.) at the federal level.

More current issues to consider for papers

1.  The risks associated with storing nuclear waste in overcrowded temporary storage pools or in so-called “interim” consolidated storage facilities.  The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is an excellent starting point for researching these issues (try the articles here, and here).

2.  Should Illinois continue providing subsidies to support Exelon and our nuclear power plants?  Right now, this is the one thing that is keeping nuclear as a cost-competitive energy source in our state.  Search terms to use to find recent news articles on this:  “Illinois nuclear subsidies” and “Future Energy Jobs Act”.  Here and here are a couple of articles that might be an entry point to this topic.  And here is another.

Interestingly, the subsidies question has two distinctly different directions it can go, politically speaking.  On the one hand, nuclear power plants can be grouped with aging coal plants and given subsidies primarily intended to maintain jobs and support industry.  On the other hand, nuclear can be grouped with renewables, and subsidies can be use to achieve Paris Climate Accord goals or to forge legal precedent for carbon-based energy policy.

A top issue to propose for your papers: Yucca Mountain

If you are a U.S. Citizen, this is an excellent topic to weigh in on right now, as it is being debated in our federal government.  A bill is in the House of Representatives that, if passed, would re-open the licensing process for Yucca Mountain.  The bill is being spearheaded by a Republican representative from a district in Southern Illinois. Here and here are two opinion pieces from some years ago in which he argues that Yucca should be re-opened.

The bill he has introduced is called H.R. 3053, or the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments act of 2017.  It is not yet up for discussion and vote in the House of Representatives as a whole, as it is moving through the committees that must review it.  This may take some time.  You can get updates, as well as the full text of the bill, here.

Use either name for the bill and do a ‘news’ search online and you can find some news stories from the point of view of Nevada residents and from other points of view.  Here is a post and video from the House committee proposing the bill.

Here are some calls for action from the Illinois-based anti-nuclear group NEIS.