In Front of UN, NGO Leaders to Call for Global Supervision of Fukushima Spent Fuel Removal Before TEPCO Starts Work

Petition With 150,000 Signatures Demanding Global

Oversight To Be Delivered To UN Secretary General

WHAT?  There will be a gathering and press availability with NGO leaders and advocates at 1pm on November 7 at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, shortly before they deliver a petition calling for UN oversight of the removal of spent fuel from Fukushima’s Unit 4 fuel pool to the UN Secretary -General’s office.  Unit 4 is severely damaged and highly vulnerable to continuing earthquakes (two earthquakes hit Fukushima prefecture in the last few days) and to other dangers.  TEPCO  is scheduled to begin removal in mid-November.   The first round of the petition attracted 150,000 signatures in a month.  It states:

"At Fukushima Unit 4, the impending removal of hugely radioactive spent fuel rods from a pool 100 feet in the air presents unparalleled scientific and engineering challenges. With the potential for 15,000 times more fallout than was released at Hiroshima, we ask the world community, through the United Nations, to take control of this uniquely perilous task."

As petition organizer Harvey Wasserman wrote recently, "Japan's Prime Minister Abe has finally asked for global help in dealing with Fukushima's water problems. US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has offered America's help.  But nothing short of a full-on global presence will do. The bring-down of the fuel rods from Unit Four is a terrifying unknown. There's no precedent for an operation of this scope, precision or potential fallout.  At very least it demands fullest possible attention from all the world's best scientists and engineers."

Speakers will announce a second round of petitions calling for a focused, global scientific review of how the spent fuel will be brought down and secured from Unit 4 before work starts.  The task is extremely delicate, the fuel is intensely radioactive, and more mistakes, mishaps and/or misinformation from TEPCO in removing it would have severe global consequences.  Significant quantities of radioactive material from Fukushima have already been found off Alaska and hundreds of tons of radioactive contamination from Fukushima plant continue to pour into the ocean daily.  

WHO?  The following speakers will address the gathering at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza and are available for side interviews on request:

Harvey Wasserman, executive director of nukefree.org,  senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information Resource Service,  a distinguished  investigative reporter and among the most prominent opponents of nuclear power in the US (as well as a prominent  renewable energy proponent and author of Solartopia).  

Jill Stein, MD, physician and Green Party nominee for President of the United States in 2012.  She currently serves as President of the Green Shadow Cabinet.

Margaret Flowers, MD,  physician, Congressional Fellow with Physicians for a National Health Program, Health Secretary of the Green Shadow Cabinet, and an advocate for global oversight of Fukushima.

WHERE & WHEN?  These speakers will gather with other advocates and supporters at from 1 - 2pm on Thursday, November 7 at Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, located at East 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.  They are also available for side interviews on request and have a room reserved for that purpose at 1 UN Plaza.  To request an interview or for more information, please call or email the contacts above.

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