Living in the shadow of the nuclear threat...

I had planned to write about the bedroom tax & Atos today, however as it's August the 6th , "A-bomb Day" I decided it's much more appropriate & relevant to write about the subject ,DANGERS  related to various nuclear issues & controversies.

It's hard to believe that its now 68 years since Hiroshima became the first city  to be targeted by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped an atomic bomb on it.  I wasn't even born then, although my generation are I suspect, a little more aware of these events than many young people of the present generation,.

On that tragic Monday of  August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., the Atomic Bomb "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, flown by Paul Tibbets, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000–140,000. The population before the bombing was around 340,000 to 350,000. Approximately 69% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed, and another 7% severely damaged.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima

 Since 1945 records from the US Air Force, Navy and Department of Energy disclose roughly one serious nuclear weapons accident every year.  The Navy alone reports 563 “incidents” between 1965 and 1983.
 The Center for Defense of Information reports  62 serious nuclear weapons accidents since 1945. ( "U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accidents", by Jaya Tiwari and Cleve J. Gray at http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm)

On July 27, 2001, the UK Ministry of Defense for the first time admitted some details of seven politically sensitive accidents involving British nuclear weapons.  In 1992, an inquiry by Ronald Oxburgh, the then MoD chief scientific adviser, found that since 1960 there have been around 20 mishaps. (Source: The Guardian, 27 July 2001)
 http://www.web.net/~cnanw/a7.htm

I believe these facts alone represent the clear risks and danger to life these weapons represent from accidentally incidents, without even beginning to reflect on the possibility of what the consequences of a horrifying repeat of them being used could mean for all of mankind, were they used in armed attacks in warfare, the dangers which we are aware of, even if we are unfamiliar with all the details of stories from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It is my opinion that in the 21st century the greatest risk to humanity is not from the use of nuclear weapons persay, although I do not in anyway intend to deflect from the very real, and worrying risk of these weapons being used in the event of wars,(wars which we know continue to rage around the globe despite "NEVER AGAIN" rhetoric post WW1 in 1914-1918, which seemed to gone unheeded as WW2 saw another estimated 60-85million people killed.

My fears in regard of nuclear disaster focus around the very real dangers centered around nuclear energy production plants, and indeed not just from the very real risks they present in way of accidental disaster as have been shown by the incidents in Chernobyl (1986)
 http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Chernobyl-Accident/#.UgDxXaxGqt8
& more recently Fukushima (2011) http://japandailypress.com/international-atomic-energy-agency-warns-of-fukushima-meltdown-inspired-terrorism-0331677/ 
but by the risk of them being used as potential targets in warfare between nations, and this fear is multiplied 10 fold by the knowledge that since  1950 governments have been developing methods to manipulate weather conditions  that if coupled with aggressive & or malicious intent, could very well destroy, not just nations, but could bring about the end of our entire planet.

Furthermore, the corporations involved in these developments have been linked to some very questionable ethical & moral buisness conducts and have very strong ties to international "superpowers" who themself have been exposed as reflecting little concern for Human rights or life & who have, what I believe is a sinister, and frankly, insane obsession with greed & power that would appear to override their ability to logically, and realistically, assess the very real dangers even to them self's, their families & heirs, of the truly dangerous path they choose to take that endangers mankind and the planet.

http://youtu.be/jDmNjt0Jf88
http://www.bariumblues.com/haarp1.htm
http://www.projectcensored.org/9-government-sponsored-technologies-for-weather-modification/

In 2012 the EU officially released bleak report on its nuclear power plants, and hints at requiring nuclear liability insurance. In  it Bellona President Frederic Hauge stated ;
 “It is a crime against the European community that the nuclear industry is competing with carbon capture and storage and renewable sources of energy by cheating on the safety of their plants and deflating the real cost of their operations,

http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2012/Eu_report_final 

There is no doubt that the recent revelations regarding the ongoing leak into the pacific ocean from the Fukushima disaster caused by earthqauke & Tsunami in 2011 which it has now been shown to have been subject of information & cover -up by Tepco & goverment officials to reflect the real & great dangers to mankind & planet, that arises from nuclear energy, and it is, I believe, blatantly obvious that these dangers vastly outweigh any possible benefits from thete continuing use, and indeed development of these energy sources, particularly when there are so many alternative safe renewable energies that are available.

 In conclusion, as someone who lives in the shadow of a nuclear power plant (approximately 17miles) away, that was due to be decommission in 2016 but had its life extended till 2023, and who is only approximately 30miles away from the Faslane nuclear navel base, I am more than alert to the real issues, risks and dangers that nuclear power and weapons represents to myself my children, my family, friends and neighbors and why today, I shall remember with both sadness and empathy the people of Hiroshima, Nagasaki,  Chernobyl & Fukushima and hope & ask that governments around the globe will do the same, and put an end to the nuclear madness once and for all.

http://news.stv.tv/west-central/204016-hunterston-b-nuclear-power-plant-has-life-extended-by-seven-years/

http://faslanepeacecamp.wordpress.com/