FUKUSHIMA: 30 MILLION RADIOACTIVE STORAGE BAGS

"The Little Black Bird"  Acrylic  24" x 24" 

by Mary Lou Dauray

This is the fourth blog in my series of artwork about nuclear energy.  My painting depicts only one of 30 million plastic storage bags stuffed with radioactive waste in the Fukushima area in Japan.  These bags are part of a seemingly futile effort to clean up contaminated soil in the area. According to Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education Organization and who has more than 40 years of nuclear power engineering experience these filled millions of plastic bags are spread all around the area—in parking lots, in people’s back yards and in rice paddies, among many other places.  Each bag holds 1 ton of radioactive waste.  He notes that despite these massive efforts remove the radioactive soil, every time it rains or snows contamination reappears.  Ultimately, the cost to Japan for the entire radioactive clean up (if that is even possible) will reach one half a trillion dollars. 

In the corner of my painting you can see a little black bird.  It refers to what appears to be a diminishment of the bird population as a direct result of the triple nuclear power plant meltdown. There is now a dead zone in area. The disaster has had huge impacts as there are dramatically fewer species, according to Dr. Timothy Mousseau, Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina.

In doing research for my artwork about nuclear energy, it is clear that there is no solution for the disposal of tons of waste from shuttered as well as existing nuclear power plants.  To pretend otherwise is appalling. I am shocked about the leaking of radioactivity into groundwater.  I strongly oppose the construction of any new nuclear power plants and the closing of all existing plants.

If you want further information please check out:

www.fukushimaupdate.com and www.fairewinds.org. 

My website:  www.maryloudauray.com

"Mother Earth is a source of life, not a resource".  

Spoken by Sioux Chief Argol Lookinghorse

NINE MILLION RADIOACTIVE FUKUSHIMA STORAGE BAGS AND COUNTING #3

                                           "Person/Robot?"  24" x  24" acrylic on canvas

                                                               by Mary Lou Dauray

    The third painting in my art series about the dangers of nuclear energy took a direction of its own as the work developed.  I started the 24” x 24” canvas by creating an image of a plastic storage bag filled with radioactive waste from the Fukushima meltdown.    However, as I continued to work, a person/robot emerged from the shadows.  I felt it was a direct reference to the many workers who have gathered radioactive wastes on the ground in the Fukushima prefecture and put the debris into nine million plastic bags.  The figure in the painting could also symbolize an experimental robotic machine being used to enter the Fukushima Daiichi plant because exposure to the existing levels of radiation, even five years after the meltdown, would be lethal for humans.  Efforts by robots to navigate the debris-strewn interior have proven to be hit and miss with the robots disintegrating upon radiation exposure.

    Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), the plant operator, believes that cleanup will take at least another 40 years to complete!  "It is difficult to estimate, but I would say that we have achieved around 10 per cent of decommissioning," said Akira Ono, superintendent of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, 140 miles northeast of Tokyo.

    The manpower and money dedicated to just the house-to-house land cleanup effort is staggering.  In the last four years, the government has spent $13.5 billion on decontamination efforts outside the nuclear plant, and the budget request for the fiscal year starting in April is another $3.48 billion, said Seiji Tsutsui, director of the international cooperation office for radioactive decontamination at the Environment Ministry.  Think about this--now necessary but--incredible waste of money which could have been used to launch wind, solar and hydroelectric power development and production in Japan.

    I am very concerned about the worldwide dangers posed by nuclear disasters including Chernobyl and Fukushima; by the continuing radioactive leakage into the waters surrounding the Fukushima plants; and by the inability to safely store the growing pile of nuclear waste, not just in Japan but elsewhere, including the United States.  As mentioned previously in my earlier blogs, I have been doing art relating to climate destruction with series about plastic pollution, melting glacial ice and the burning, transporting, and mining of coal.  Until this week’s Supreme Court's politicized ultimatum to halt implementation of a positive climate decision by President Obama which would have helped to stop coal plant emissions and construction I felt the momentum of the UN climate talks in December 2015 would help speed a lowering of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Now, with this Supreme Court unwise decision, I fear that this climate agreement is jeopardized.

   Please read the February 11, 2015, New York Times article entitled “Let’s End the Peril of a Nuclear Winter” by Alan Robock and Owen Brian Toon     http://nyti.ms/1V5IJAj

     My website:  www.maryloudauray.com

NINE MILLION PLASTIC BAGS AND COUNTING #2

"NINE MILLION BAGS AND COUNTING #2" 

 Acrylic on canvas 24" x 24"

by Mary Lou Dauray  

This picture, “Nine Million Bags and Counting #2,” is my second in a series about nuclear energy.  I am deeply concerned about the dangers posed by past, current and future nuclear power development and the dilemma posed by nuclear waste disposal.   This is a critical and ominous issue that can threaten a healthy existence of all life on this planet.  Admittedly, before I decided to tackle this topic of nuclear energy as my current artwork direction, I realized early on that I was not a scientist—just an artist trying to use my voice about climate destruction.  As a result, I plunged into the world of online information about the topic nuclear. When I came upon the incredible photos of nine million plastic bags of stored waste from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdown in Japan, I realized I had my subject.  These bags, with a lifespan of three years,  are neatly piled above ground or even in some backyards.  Alarmingly, after a serious flooding from an intense rainstorm in the Fukushima area last September, 2015, I found out that scores of these 264-gallon plastic bags just floated away and some even broke open.  I even saw a photo of a person scooping up the radioactive debris with bare hands!  Keep in mind that the Olympics are scheduled to occur in Japan in 2020…an issue that the government is keenly aware of. 

My second artwork, as you can see, is definitely going in the more abstract direction than my first effort.