Taka
2011-05-26 08:24:32 UTC
The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in Perspective
This press conference organized by Globla Research was held in the
context of Helen Caldicott's public lecture to Montreal on March 18,
2011.
First I want to present this report, produced by the New York Academy
of Sciences, a report on Chernobyl. It can be downloaded.(2) They
translated 5,000 articles from Russian for the first time into
English. It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a
result of Chernobyl, despite what the WH0(3) says and the IAEA.(4)
This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of
medicine. Because everybody should know about this.
Then we extrapolate through to Japan. Japan is by orders of magnitude
many times worse than Chernobyl. Never in my life did I think that six
nuclear reactors would be at risk.(5) I knew that three GE engineers
who helped design these Mark I GE reactors, resigned because they knew
they were dangerous.(6)
So Japan built them on an earthquake fault. The reactors partially
withstood the earthquake, but the external electricity supply was cut
off, and the electricity supplies the cooling water, a million gallons
a minute, to each of those six reactors. Without the cooling water,
the water [level] falls, and the rods are so hot they melt, like at
Three Mile Island, and at Chernobyl.
So the emergency diesel generators, which are as large as a house, got
destroyed by the tsunami, so there is no way to keep the water
circulating in the reactors.(7) Also, on the roofs of the reactors,
not within the containment vessel, are cooling pools. Every year they
remove about thirty tons of the most radioactive rods that you can
possibly imagine.(8) Each one is twelve feet long and half an inch
thick. It gives out so much radiation, that if you stand next to it
for a couple of minutes, you'll die. Not drop dead. Remember
Litvinenko, the Russian, who got poisoned by polonium?(9) You'll die
like that, with your hair falling out, and bleeding with massive
infection, like AIDS patients die.
And [the spent fuel rods] are thermally hot, so they have to be put in
a big pool, and continually cooled. The pool has really no roof.
There have been three hydrogen explosions, blowing off the roof of the
building, not the containment vessel of the core, but the roof. And
exposing the cooling pool.(10) Two of the cooling pools are dry. They
have no water in them. Meaning that the nuclear fuel rods are covered
with a material called zirconium. When zirconium is exposed to air, it
burns, it ignites. Two of the cooling pools at this moment are
burning. In the cooling pools are many times, like 10 to 20 times more
radiation than in each reactor core. In each reactor core is as much
long-lived radiation as would be produced by a thousand Hiroshima-
sized bombs. We are dealing with diabolical energy.
E=MC2 is the energy that blows up nuclear bombs. Einstein said nuclear
power is a hell of a way to boil water.(11) Because that is all
nuclear power is used for, to boil water through the massive heat,
turn it into steam, and turn a turbine which generates electricity.
Now when you fission uranium, 200 new elements are formed, all of
which are much more poisonous to the body than the original uranium.
(12) Although uranium is pretty poisonous. America used it in
Fallujah, and in Baghdad. And in Fallujah, 80 per cent of the babies
being born are grossly deformed.(13) They're being born without
brains, single eyes, no arms... The doctors have told the women to
stop having babies. The incidence of childhood cancer has gone up
about twelve times. This is genocide -- it's a nuclear war being
conducted in Iraq. The uranium that they're using lasts more than 4.5
billion years. So we're contaminating the cradle of civilization. "The
coalition of the willing!"
In the nuclear power plants, however, there is a huge amount of
radiation: two hundred elements. Some last seconds, some last millions
of years. Radioactive iodine lasts six weeks, causes thyroid cancer.
That's why people are saying, "Better take potassium iodide," because
that blocks the thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine, which later can
cause thyroid cancer.
In Chernobyl, over 20,000 people have developed thyroid cancer.(14)
They have their thyroids out, and they will die unless they take
thyroid replacement every day, like a diabetic has to take insulin.
Strontium-90 will get out, it lasts for 600 years. It goes to the
bone, where it causes bone cancer or leukemia. Cesium lasts for 600
years -- it's all over Europe. 40 per cent of Europe is still
radioactive. Turkish food is extremely radioactive. Do not buy Turkish
dried apricots, or Turkish hazelnuts. The Turks were so cross with the
Russians, they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after
Chernobyl.(15)
Forty per cent of Europe is still radioactive. Farms in Britain, their
lambs are so full of cesium they can't sell them. Don’t eat European
food.
But that's nothing compared to what's happening now. One of the most
deadly [nuclear byproducts] is plutonium, named after Pluto, god of
the underworld. One millionth of a gram, if you inhale it, would give
you cancer. Hypothetically, one pound of plutonium if evenly
distributed could give everyone on earth cancer. Each reactor has 250
kilograms of plutonium in it. You only need 2.5 kilograms to make an
atomic bomb, because plutonium is what they make bombs with.
So any country that has a reactor, works with your uranium. You
[Canada] are the biggest exporter of uranium in the world.(16) Canada
sells two things: it sells wheat for life, and uranium for death.
Plutonium is going to get out and spread all over the northern
hemisphere. It's already heading towards North America now.
Radioactive iodine, plus strontium, plus cesium, plus tritium, and I
could go on and on and on. When it rains, downs come fallout, and it
concentrates in food. If it gets into the sea, the algae concentrate
it, hundreds of times. And the crustaceans concentrate it, hundreds of
times. And then the little fish, then the big fish, then us.(17)
Because we stand on the apex of the food chain. You can't taste these
radioactive food elements, you can't see them, you can't smell them.
They're silent. When you get them inside your body, you don't suddenly
drop dead of cancer, it takes five to sixty years to get your cancer,
and when you feel a lump in your breast, it doesn't say, "I was made
by some strontium-90 in a piece of fish you ate twenty years ago."
All radiation is damaging. It's cumulative -- each dose you get adds
to your risk of getting cancer. The americium is more dangerous than
plutonium -- I could go on and on. Depends if it rains if you're going
to get it or not. If it rains and the radiation comes down, don't grow
food, and don't eat the food, and I mean don't eat it for 600 years.
Radioactive waste from nuclear power is going to be buried, I hear,
next to Lake Ontario. It's going to leak, last for millions of years,
it's going to get into the water, and into the food chains.
Radioactive waste will induce epidemics of cancer, leukemia, and
genetic disease for the rest of time. This is the greatest public
health hazard the world has ever witnessed, apart from the threat
every day of nuclear war.
Einstein said "the splitting of the atom changed everything, save
man's mode of thinking" -- very profound -- "and thus we drift toward
unparalleled catastrophe." We are arrogant, we have a lot of hubris,
and I think the reptilian mid-brain of some men's brains is
pathological.(18)
We are in a situation where we have harnessed the energy of the sun.
It is totally out of control. And there's simply nothing we can do
about it.
NOTES
1) Helen Caldicott is the founder of Physicians for Social
Responsibility, and is the author of "The New Nuclear Danger" (The New
Press, 2002).
2) "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe For the People and the
Environment," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
http://www.nyas.org/publications/annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1
3) "Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident," World Health
Organization. http://www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/chernobyl.asp
4) "Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident," International
Atomic Energy Agency. http://www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/chernobyl.asp
5) For a general description of the complex, including cross-sections
of the six reactors, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_nuclear_accidents
6) http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Three
Excerpt: On February 2, 1976, Gregory C. Minor, Richard B. Hubbard,
and Dale G. Bridenbaugh "blew the whistle" on safety problems at
nuclear power plants. The three engineers gained the attention of
journalists and their disclosures about the threats of nuclear power
had a significant impact. They timed their statements to coincide with
their resignations from responsible positions in General Electric's
nuclear energy division, and later established themselves as
consultants on the nuclear power industry for state governments,
federal agencies, and overseas governments.
7) "Japanese Scramble to Avert Meltdowns as Nuclear Crisis Deepens
After Quake," New York Times, March 12, 2011, By HIROKO TABUCHI and
MATTHEW L. WALD
8) The design manual for General Electric boiling water reactors was
posted as a PDF document on the "What Really Happened" website, and
can be downloaded at: http://whatreallyhappened.com/content/ge-manual-bwr6-reactor-design-and-operation
9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko
Excerpt: Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian
Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who escaped prosecution in
Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom. He wrote
two books, "Blowing up Russia: Terror from within" and "Lubyanka
Criminal Group", where he accused the Russian secret services of
staging Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts to bring
Vladimir Putin to power. On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell
ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later, becoming the
first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation
syndrome. According to doctors, "Litvinenko's murder represents an
ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism".
Litvinenko's allegations about the misdeeds of the FSB and his public
deathbed accusations that Russian president Vladimir Putin were behind
his unusual malady resulted in worldwide media coverage.
10) "Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors,"
Keith Bradsher & Hiroko Tabuchi, NY Times, March 17, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18spent.html
"Radiation Spread Seen; Frantic Repairs Go On,"
David Sanger & William J. Broad, NY Times, March 17, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18intel.html
"U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant,"
James Glanz & William J. Broad, NY Times, April 6, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/asia/06nuclear.html
"Focus on preventing explosions at Japan nuke plant,"
Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press, April 6, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110406/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake_654
11) http://wisequotes.org/nuclear-power-is-one-hell-of-a-way-to-boil-water
12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_product
13) "US Accused of Using Poison Gases in Fallujah,"
Democracy Now, Monday, November 29th, 2004
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/29/u_s_accused_of_using_poison
"Evidence of Extensive War Crimes, Unprecedented
in the annals of legal history," Niloufer Bhagwat,
Global Research, December 11, 2004
http://globalresearchca/articles/BHA412A.html
"Depleted Uranium Weapons: Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No
Joke," by Dave Lindorff, Global Research, October 20, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15744
"The consequences of a US war crime:
Cancer rate in Fallujah worse than Hiroshima,"
Tom Eley, World Socialist, July 23, 2010
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/fall-j23.shtml
"Research Links Rise in Fallujah Birth Defects and Cancers to US
Assault," Martin Chulov, The Guardian/UK, December 31, 2010
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/12/31
14) "Chernobyl's Continuing Thyroid Impact,"
By Mary Shomon, December 15, 2003
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/nuclearexposure/a/chernob.htm
15) "Authorities lied on impact of Chernobyl in Turkey,"
Greenpeace Report
http://www.blackraiser.com/cherno.htm
16) WISE Report on the Worldwide Uranium Market
http://wwwwise-uranium.org/umkt.html
"Why is Uranium Important to Canada?"
Canadian Nuclear Association,
http://www.cna.ca/english/pdf/nuclearfacts/04-NuclearFacts-uranium.pdf
17) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioaccumulation
18) http://www.crystalinks.com/reptilianbrain.html
SOURCE: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1105/S00138/the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-in-perspective.htm
-------------------------------
This may be the end of mankind, destroyed by its own brain which
unleashed the atomic power by mining and concentrating the uranium
ore. Some more earthquakes as we are climbing into the next solar
cycle maximum and we are done. The next organisms prospering on Earth
could well be these fungi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus
Taka
This press conference organized by Globla Research was held in the
context of Helen Caldicott's public lecture to Montreal on March 18,
2011.
First I want to present this report, produced by the New York Academy
of Sciences, a report on Chernobyl. It can be downloaded.(2) They
translated 5,000 articles from Russian for the first time into
English. It seems that nearly a million people have already died as a
result of Chernobyl, despite what the WH0(3) says and the IAEA.(4)
This is one of the most monstrous cover-ups in the history of
medicine. Because everybody should know about this.
Then we extrapolate through to Japan. Japan is by orders of magnitude
many times worse than Chernobyl. Never in my life did I think that six
nuclear reactors would be at risk.(5) I knew that three GE engineers
who helped design these Mark I GE reactors, resigned because they knew
they were dangerous.(6)
So Japan built them on an earthquake fault. The reactors partially
withstood the earthquake, but the external electricity supply was cut
off, and the electricity supplies the cooling water, a million gallons
a minute, to each of those six reactors. Without the cooling water,
the water [level] falls, and the rods are so hot they melt, like at
Three Mile Island, and at Chernobyl.
So the emergency diesel generators, which are as large as a house, got
destroyed by the tsunami, so there is no way to keep the water
circulating in the reactors.(7) Also, on the roofs of the reactors,
not within the containment vessel, are cooling pools. Every year they
remove about thirty tons of the most radioactive rods that you can
possibly imagine.(8) Each one is twelve feet long and half an inch
thick. It gives out so much radiation, that if you stand next to it
for a couple of minutes, you'll die. Not drop dead. Remember
Litvinenko, the Russian, who got poisoned by polonium?(9) You'll die
like that, with your hair falling out, and bleeding with massive
infection, like AIDS patients die.
And [the spent fuel rods] are thermally hot, so they have to be put in
a big pool, and continually cooled. The pool has really no roof.
There have been three hydrogen explosions, blowing off the roof of the
building, not the containment vessel of the core, but the roof. And
exposing the cooling pool.(10) Two of the cooling pools are dry. They
have no water in them. Meaning that the nuclear fuel rods are covered
with a material called zirconium. When zirconium is exposed to air, it
burns, it ignites. Two of the cooling pools at this moment are
burning. In the cooling pools are many times, like 10 to 20 times more
radiation than in each reactor core. In each reactor core is as much
long-lived radiation as would be produced by a thousand Hiroshima-
sized bombs. We are dealing with diabolical energy.
E=MC2 is the energy that blows up nuclear bombs. Einstein said nuclear
power is a hell of a way to boil water.(11) Because that is all
nuclear power is used for, to boil water through the massive heat,
turn it into steam, and turn a turbine which generates electricity.
Now when you fission uranium, 200 new elements are formed, all of
which are much more poisonous to the body than the original uranium.
(12) Although uranium is pretty poisonous. America used it in
Fallujah, and in Baghdad. And in Fallujah, 80 per cent of the babies
being born are grossly deformed.(13) They're being born without
brains, single eyes, no arms... The doctors have told the women to
stop having babies. The incidence of childhood cancer has gone up
about twelve times. This is genocide -- it's a nuclear war being
conducted in Iraq. The uranium that they're using lasts more than 4.5
billion years. So we're contaminating the cradle of civilization. "The
coalition of the willing!"
In the nuclear power plants, however, there is a huge amount of
radiation: two hundred elements. Some last seconds, some last millions
of years. Radioactive iodine lasts six weeks, causes thyroid cancer.
That's why people are saying, "Better take potassium iodide," because
that blocks the thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine, which later can
cause thyroid cancer.
In Chernobyl, over 20,000 people have developed thyroid cancer.(14)
They have their thyroids out, and they will die unless they take
thyroid replacement every day, like a diabetic has to take insulin.
Strontium-90 will get out, it lasts for 600 years. It goes to the
bone, where it causes bone cancer or leukemia. Cesium lasts for 600
years -- it's all over Europe. 40 per cent of Europe is still
radioactive. Turkish food is extremely radioactive. Do not buy Turkish
dried apricots, or Turkish hazelnuts. The Turks were so cross with the
Russians, they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after
Chernobyl.(15)
Forty per cent of Europe is still radioactive. Farms in Britain, their
lambs are so full of cesium they can't sell them. Don’t eat European
food.
But that's nothing compared to what's happening now. One of the most
deadly [nuclear byproducts] is plutonium, named after Pluto, god of
the underworld. One millionth of a gram, if you inhale it, would give
you cancer. Hypothetically, one pound of plutonium if evenly
distributed could give everyone on earth cancer. Each reactor has 250
kilograms of plutonium in it. You only need 2.5 kilograms to make an
atomic bomb, because plutonium is what they make bombs with.
So any country that has a reactor, works with your uranium. You
[Canada] are the biggest exporter of uranium in the world.(16) Canada
sells two things: it sells wheat for life, and uranium for death.
Plutonium is going to get out and spread all over the northern
hemisphere. It's already heading towards North America now.
Radioactive iodine, plus strontium, plus cesium, plus tritium, and I
could go on and on and on. When it rains, downs come fallout, and it
concentrates in food. If it gets into the sea, the algae concentrate
it, hundreds of times. And the crustaceans concentrate it, hundreds of
times. And then the little fish, then the big fish, then us.(17)
Because we stand on the apex of the food chain. You can't taste these
radioactive food elements, you can't see them, you can't smell them.
They're silent. When you get them inside your body, you don't suddenly
drop dead of cancer, it takes five to sixty years to get your cancer,
and when you feel a lump in your breast, it doesn't say, "I was made
by some strontium-90 in a piece of fish you ate twenty years ago."
All radiation is damaging. It's cumulative -- each dose you get adds
to your risk of getting cancer. The americium is more dangerous than
plutonium -- I could go on and on. Depends if it rains if you're going
to get it or not. If it rains and the radiation comes down, don't grow
food, and don't eat the food, and I mean don't eat it for 600 years.
Radioactive waste from nuclear power is going to be buried, I hear,
next to Lake Ontario. It's going to leak, last for millions of years,
it's going to get into the water, and into the food chains.
Radioactive waste will induce epidemics of cancer, leukemia, and
genetic disease for the rest of time. This is the greatest public
health hazard the world has ever witnessed, apart from the threat
every day of nuclear war.
Einstein said "the splitting of the atom changed everything, save
man's mode of thinking" -- very profound -- "and thus we drift toward
unparalleled catastrophe." We are arrogant, we have a lot of hubris,
and I think the reptilian mid-brain of some men's brains is
pathological.(18)
We are in a situation where we have harnessed the energy of the sun.
It is totally out of control. And there's simply nothing we can do
about it.
NOTES
1) Helen Caldicott is the founder of Physicians for Social
Responsibility, and is the author of "The New Nuclear Danger" (The New
Press, 2002).
2) "Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe For the People and the
Environment," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
http://www.nyas.org/publications/annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1
3) "Health Effects of the Chernobyl Accident," World Health
Organization. http://www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/chernobyl.asp
4) "Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident," International
Atomic Energy Agency. http://www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/chernobyl.asp
5) For a general description of the complex, including cross-sections
of the six reactors, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_nuclear_accidents
6) http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Three
Excerpt: On February 2, 1976, Gregory C. Minor, Richard B. Hubbard,
and Dale G. Bridenbaugh "blew the whistle" on safety problems at
nuclear power plants. The three engineers gained the attention of
journalists and their disclosures about the threats of nuclear power
had a significant impact. They timed their statements to coincide with
their resignations from responsible positions in General Electric's
nuclear energy division, and later established themselves as
consultants on the nuclear power industry for state governments,
federal agencies, and overseas governments.
7) "Japanese Scramble to Avert Meltdowns as Nuclear Crisis Deepens
After Quake," New York Times, March 12, 2011, By HIROKO TABUCHI and
MATTHEW L. WALD
8) The design manual for General Electric boiling water reactors was
posted as a PDF document on the "What Really Happened" website, and
can be downloaded at: http://whatreallyhappened.com/content/ge-manual-bwr6-reactor-design-and-operation
9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko
Excerpt: Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian
Federal Security Service, FSB and KGB, who escaped prosecution in
Russia and received political asylum in the United Kingdom. He wrote
two books, "Blowing up Russia: Terror from within" and "Lubyanka
Criminal Group", where he accused the Russian secret services of
staging Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts to bring
Vladimir Putin to power. On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell
ill and was hospitalized. He died three weeks later, becoming the
first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation
syndrome. According to doctors, "Litvinenko's murder represents an
ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism".
Litvinenko's allegations about the misdeeds of the FSB and his public
deathbed accusations that Russian president Vladimir Putin were behind
his unusual malady resulted in worldwide media coverage.
10) "Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors,"
Keith Bradsher & Hiroko Tabuchi, NY Times, March 17, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18spent.html
"Radiation Spread Seen; Frantic Repairs Go On,"
David Sanger & William J. Broad, NY Times, March 17, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/03/18/world/asia/18intel.html
"U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant,"
James Glanz & William J. Broad, NY Times, April 6, 2011
www.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/world/asia/06nuclear.html
"Focus on preventing explosions at Japan nuke plant,"
Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press, April 6, 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110406/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earthquake_654
11) http://wisequotes.org/nuclear-power-is-one-hell-of-a-way-to-boil-water
12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_product
13) "US Accused of Using Poison Gases in Fallujah,"
Democracy Now, Monday, November 29th, 2004
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/11/29/u_s_accused_of_using_poison
"Evidence of Extensive War Crimes, Unprecedented
in the annals of legal history," Niloufer Bhagwat,
Global Research, December 11, 2004
http://globalresearchca/articles/BHA412A.html
"Depleted Uranium Weapons: Dead Babies in Iraq and Afghanistan Are No
Joke," by Dave Lindorff, Global Research, October 20, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15744
"The consequences of a US war crime:
Cancer rate in Fallujah worse than Hiroshima,"
Tom Eley, World Socialist, July 23, 2010
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/fall-j23.shtml
"Research Links Rise in Fallujah Birth Defects and Cancers to US
Assault," Martin Chulov, The Guardian/UK, December 31, 2010
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/12/31
14) "Chernobyl's Continuing Thyroid Impact,"
By Mary Shomon, December 15, 2003
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/nuclearexposure/a/chernob.htm
15) "Authorities lied on impact of Chernobyl in Turkey,"
Greenpeace Report
http://www.blackraiser.com/cherno.htm
16) WISE Report on the Worldwide Uranium Market
http://wwwwise-uranium.org/umkt.html
"Why is Uranium Important to Canada?"
Canadian Nuclear Association,
http://www.cna.ca/english/pdf/nuclearfacts/04-NuclearFacts-uranium.pdf
17) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioaccumulation
18) http://www.crystalinks.com/reptilianbrain.html
SOURCE: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1105/S00138/the-fukushima-nuclear-disaster-in-perspective.htm
-------------------------------
This may be the end of mankind, destroyed by its own brain which
unleashed the atomic power by mining and concentrating the uranium
ore. Some more earthquakes as we are climbing into the next solar
cycle maximum and we are done. The next organisms prospering on Earth
could well be these fungi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus
Taka