Prevent further radiation poisoning of Japan's schoolchildren

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URGENT: ACT NOW TO PREVENT FURTHER RADIATION POISONING OF JAPANESE CHILDREN!

TOMORROW IS 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF CHERNOBYL; ACTIONS ACROSS U.S. JOIN ONE!

April 25, 2011

The Japanese government has made an unconscionable decision to increase the allowable radiation dose for children attending school in Fukushima Prefecture to 20 MilliSieverts/year--or 2 rems/year.

This is 20 times the allowable standard for the public in the U.S.--and 20 times above the previous allowable standard in Japan.

And at the same time, the Japanese government is planning to evacuate additional towns in Fukushima Prefecture because residents would be exposed to 20 MilliSieverts/year! This double standard makes no sense.

Nor does treating children the same as adults: children are more suspectible to radiation effects than adults.

Our Japanese colleagues have set up an emergency petition calling for a reversal of this decision. They will be presenting the petition to government officials on April 30. Please sign the petition here now, and ask your friends and colleagues to sign as well!

Important: please note that after signing, you will be sent an e-mail to confirm your signature. Please watch your inbox/spam box for this e-mail, and click the link on it to ensure your signature is recorded!

Chernobyl+25
NIRS action page now lists actions in 18 states for tomorrow's Chernobyl anniversary and for upcoming days and weeks. Several more actions will be posted to the page later today--so check tonight and tomorrow morning for the action nearest you!

Note: if your group is planning actions this Spring, please get the information to us as early as possible so we can help publicize. Make sure to include your group name; date, time and location of the action; and contact information. If you have a flyer or poster, send us a copy of that too.

Don't forget about tomorrow's Virtual March on Washington! To participate, just send a photo of yourself (and friends!) to nir...@nirs.org. Go here to see the current slideshow and download a sign you can hold for your photo. We'll be presenting this virtual march to the Blue Ribbon Commisson on America's Nuclear Future. Make sure your voice is seen!

Note: the Fukushima petition and Virtual March are open to people in every country.

A reminder of the new position available at NIRS: The job description and application instructions are posted here.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nir...@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

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We remind you of two important ongoing actions--especially because this e-mail list is growing so fast (thank you!) many new people haven't seen these:

*we are continuing to urge letters to Congress to end taxpayer funding of new reactors. Take action here. More than 41,000 letters have gone in so far--let's keep it up!

*we are continuing to urge the permanent shutdown of the 23 GE Mark I reactors in the U.S., which suffer from the same fundamental design flaws that contributed so greatly to the Fukushima diaster. Support this campaign here; more than 6,750 people have done so already.