The international community is well aware of the double standard in policy. The US quietly applauded Israeli air strikes against Saddam Hussein’s Osirak nuclear-energy plant in 1981 and has since demanded ever-stricter sanctions against Tehran and Pyongyang. Yet Washington refuses to lead by example, shrugging off the anti-nuclear movement’s pleas to stop plans for new reactors and shunning calls from the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for total nuclear disarmament. America’s campaign for an atomic monopoly, or at least nuclear dominance, is driving smaller powers toward obtaining a deterrence capability. These nations aren’t some “axis of evil”; they’re just playing the survival game by the rules – not the words – set by Washington.
Tag: Japan Nuclear Crisis
By Dmitry Kosyrev: During the first days of the civil war in Libya, most of what you read in the Russian media was conspiracy theories. Nefarious forces in the United States were accused of plotting to…
By Norman Solomon: Like every other president since the 1940s, Barack Obama has promoted nuclear power. Now, with reactors melting down in Japan, the official stance is more disconnected from reality than ever. Political elites…
By Rady Ananda: In a deepening tragedy, after an earthquake and tsunami caused four explosions at nuclear reactor plants in Japan, most of those who evacuated the area headed south, since winds normally would have…
By HELEN CALDICOTT: People all over the world are watching updates on the Japanese nuclear emergency in growing horror and disbelief. Despite soothing words from nuclear energy industry promoters, each update today has signalled fresh…
The price of consumer electronic goods such as computers, mobile phones and DVDs could rise across the world due to shortage of electronic components from disaster-hit Japan, experts warn. There are already signs of an…
Amid mounting fears for possible radiation from Japan, a Los Angeles health official warned on Wednesday that indiscriminately taking potassium iodide could be harmful to the health. “Residents who ingest potassium iodide out of concern…
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has stopped his country’s plans to develop nuclear energy. The decision follows uncertainties caused by the nuclear crisis in Japan. Chavez says he’s ordered his vice president and energy minister to…
Dangerous levels force workers to take shelter – and crisis hampers relief efforts for local residents. Japan embarked on a desperate series of initiatives to regain control as conditions at its failing nuclear plant deteriorated…
USA stands for United Steel (Workers) of America. The meltdown of a single core reactor would make any human presence impossible on site. Without the maintenance work of water injection, the other reactors would sooner than later also undergo meltdown. When one goes, the others will soon follow. The Japanese government now openly accepts the possibility of a core meltdown of Unit 2, which completely lost all its water content for a short time yesterday when a portable generator ran out of diesel fuel. Human error is becoming an understandable problem with the high casualty toll among plant workers, exhaustion and lack of equipment on the tsunami-swept site.