NUCLEAR TESTS POLLUTION Update 29 March, 2021

NUCLEAR TESTING

IN THE PACIFIC

Summary  Nobody talks about the Nuclear Test pollution or Nuclear Waste which is even more polluting the environment than Plastic. Despite full knowledge that Nuclear Warheads and Rockets can never be used, unless you want to wipe out whole countries for centuries, they still produce them.

Update 29 March, 2021 - Johnson decided, against the will of the people, to increase the Trident Nuclear Warheads from 180 to 260. Each containing 100,000 tonnes of TNT while the first Atom Bomb dropped in Japan contained 20,000 tonnes of TNT.

Update 10 April, 2019 -- A scandalous report - UK Government dumps Nuclear Waste off Wales and Scotland Coasts; in other words, it is now the responsibility of  Wales and Scotland which is a dirty trick. Furthermore, UK Government letting the nuclear updated Trident rot in Scotland's harbour. 

PM May finally had to face the fact that they can never use Trident nuclear warheads. It means a total waste of Taxpayers' money which went 90pc to the USA. There was an uproar from MPs and people to stop it but PM May would not and went ahead. She even lied about a failed nuclear test of Trident.

It is not a blog to belittle the effects of plastic pollution in Oceans but at the same time to point out that Nuclear testing on islands has had also a catastrophic impact on land and sea for decades to come.

In my opinion, it had created the black hole, rather, then the sprays, petrol pollution and others; we were told was a great cause of the black hole.

Since the 1950s USA and France held a great number of atom bomb tests on islands in the Pacific Ocean and France in the Sahara.

The fall-out and pollution is still effective after decades and will last for centuries. 

USA held their testing on the Bikini Island at the beginning of 1960s. The local population was forced to evacuate to America. Officially there were 64 tests held. After decades it was declared safe to return and some did return. They grew crops and were fishing. Soon they complained of health problems which proved it was not safe and the nuclear pollution still existed.

France tested independently developed nuclear weapons first in the Algerian Sahara 1960-66 and then on French Polynesia in the Pacific from 1966 to 1996.

Officially 210 French nuclear testing had been done during 1960-1995.

It is assumed that France has a stockpile of 300 operational nuclear warheads.

Furthermore, Nuclear Waste has been dumped in Oceans constantly, assuring us it is safe. The reality is that nobody knows what the effects are on the casing over decades. All we are aware of is that it takes centuries of nuclear waste to be ineffective, if ever at all. 

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

In view of these devastating effects leaders still develop and building nuclear warheads which most probably, hopefully, they never use.

Another nuclear pollution comes from the tsunami disaster in Japan. They never bother or unable to control the nuclear spillage into the ocean from their damaged nuclear power station. The last we heard it still gets washed into the ocean.

The latest, North Korea constantly testing their nuclear missiles which end up in the ocean. Another leader who couldn’t care about the nuclear polluting effect it has.

We had two nuclear power stations’ disasters, one in Russia and the other in Japan. In Russia, land is polluted and fenced off still after 30 years and will be for further decades if not centuries.

After the two disasters Germany closed down all nuclear power stations and encouraged people to install solar panels. It has now so widely spread that the government was able to force energy suppliers to reduce their tariffs.

It also reduced the nuclear waste.

Britain done their testing in Australia.

But UK, after all the knowledge of disasters and nuclear waste which is hard if not impossible to store for centuries has now signed with China to build a new nuclear power station. It is folly and madness in one.

Why can’t the UK Government encourage the people to install solar panels which would have been less costly than building a new nuclear power station and the nuclear waste. The reason is that shareholders, which includes the Government and their friends, will not get the high dividends it is getting now.

BOOK REVIEW TENKO

Tenko, a name given to the most infamous Prisoner-of-War camps in the Second World War. It was in Japan and Margot Turner was imprisoned there with many other women. Tenko means a "roll call" and the prisoners had to stand there bowed all the time during the counting.

Margot Turner was 21-years old and a theatre sister in Singapore. The Japanese forces were overrunning Singapore in February 1942. Margot and 350 other people tried to escape. They boarded a cargo ship in Keppel harbour. The ship was hit by a shell. Military personnel and civilians swam to a nearby island. After few days Margot boarded a cargo ship again which was heading for Batavia. There she got torpedoed again. She was fighting for her life in shark-infested water constantly fighting dangerous currents. Margot and another nurse put a sort of a raft together. All the others on the raft died either from wounds or sun or dehydration.

Although she burned black and had blisters Margot survived by eating seaweed and drinking rainwater collected in her powder compact. She stated afterwards that she had always the feeling that a higher power was watching over her.

One day she was picked up by a Japanese destroyer. This started a three-and-a-half years of being a prisoner-of-war and lived and worked in Japanese camps. Although, her experiences were often incredible she kept morale high. She managed to keep the humour going which help a lot.

She remembered that they kept irritating the Japanese because we laughed a lot. The Japanese didn't know what we were laughing about.

In spite of the poor nourishment, hard labour, and lack of water the malaria-carrying mosquitoes and diseases, they kept going. The other irritating spontaneous call was "tenko". They had to bow very low in front of a Japanese guard. They had to line-up every time the Japanese shouted "tenko"

Margot got one day irritated because she realized that these guards were not very educated. She thought that after all she is a British officer and a British Army nurse. After all she wasn't Japanese. She decided to stand upright and did not bow. She was hit so hard that it knocked a tooth out. After a hard lesson learned she was bowing again. Another torment they had to suffer if the Japanese saw something they didn't agree with, they stood the women in the sun. When women died they buried them. She remembered to have made three cemeteries.

The only thing they were able to endure and survive plus achieve many thing, it was friendship, comradeship and caring for each other. Despite the hostile environment and tropical climate they managed to build from nothing, schools, hospitals, social clubs and religious concerts which were planned and organised.

To show their defiance to their captors they developed a determination not to live a docile and obedient live.

A book was written called "Surviving Tenko" by Penny Starns. Also a TV series was produced but with so many untrue situations shown that Margot was disgusted. They even were so disrespectful and portrait her as a lesbian which was completely untrue. She had many admirers but was not interested in marriage and having children. Margot just liked the life she was leading which would not have been possible if she married.

Margot Turner became a matron-in-chief and director of Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps after the war. She died in 1993 at the age of 83.