Category Archives: Nuclear waste
Workers at U.S. nuclear site exposed — Levels “well above threshold for a High Contamination Area” #Hanford
Two Pacific Northwest National Laboratory employees inhaled small amounts of radioactive tritium while doing work in the Hanford 300 Area last month. […]
Tritium inadvertently spread outside the fume hood, including along the routes to radiological trash disposal.
“Contamination levels on the floor immediately adjacent to the fume hood were well above the threshold for a High Contamination Area,” according to the defense board staff report. […]
The event is still under investigation and it’s too soon to say if any changes will be made to laboratory procedures, [PNNL spokesman Greg Koller] said.
Title: PNNL staffers exposed to radioactive tritium in Richland
Source: The Bellingham Herald
Author: Annette Cary
“U.S. state on alert after nuclear waste leak” — Governor: “This is most disturbing news”… No ‘immediate’ public health threat #Hanford
US state on alert after nuclear waste leak […] HEIGHTENED radioactivity levels have been found outside a nuclear waste tank in the US state of Washington, officials say, in a new alert about a site used to make Cold War-era bombs. Governor Jay Inslee said there was no immediate public health threat […] A spokeswoman for Washington state’s Ecology Department explained why the new finding was so disturbing. “Until last night, it was thought the leak was contained in the outer shell, but workers detected elevated radioactivity levels within the leak detection pit,” Erica Holmes said.
The elevated reading, however, doesn’t pose an immediate public health threat, [Washington Gov. Jay Inslee] said. “This is most disturbing news for Washington,” the governor said in a statement. […]
KING 5 News
[…] It appears the most dangerous material on earth is out of its tank and out of their control, and there’s no immediate plan on how to solve the problem. […]
Now it appears the worst case scenario has happened, the waste has eaten through the outer tank wall. […]
But no one expected this […]
A crew working on the leak detection pit pulled a piece of equipment from it and measured a whopping contamination reading — 800,000 dpm,or disintegrations per minute. […]
Western U.S. turned into “radiant wasteland” by nuclear-related facilities
Moab, Utah: Beauty and the Nuclear Feast
The [uranium] tailings made Moab [Utah] glow — and not in a good way. For nearly 30 years, the various companies that operated the facility dumped ton after ton of the radioactive sandy byproduct into an unlined impoundment area located 750 feet from the river. Over the decades, this Geiger-hot waste, which ultimately totaled 12 million cubic yards, was spread over 130 acres at a depth of more than 80 feet. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), which took over remediation of the site, the tailings “have an average radioactivity of 665 picocuries per gram of radium-226,” and because the center of the monstrous pile has a “high water content…excess water in the pile drains into underlying soils, contaminating the ground water.”
Some the deleterious consequences are revealed in “The American West at Risk,” an illuminating book whose authors pay special attention to the Moab mill. It’s hard to dispute their claim that it ranks “high in the annals of indiscriminate disposal,” for the tailings each day continue to release “an estimated 28,000 gallons of radioactive pollutants and toxic chemicals into the only major river draining the southwestern United States.” […]
The Moab mine, like Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Rocky Flats weapons facility in Colorado, and Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico, helped turn the west into a radiant wasteland. […]
via TV: Western U.S. turned into “radiant wasteland” by nuclear-related facilities.
U.S. nuclear site “a true horror story” — Officials should be screaming at top of their lungs in outrage — “Problems could lead to explosions or nuclear reactions” #Hanford
Hanford’s 56 million gallons of the most contaminated nuclear waste in the western hemisphere is a true horror story. [
In February, officials announced that six single-shell tanks were leaking. These are not the first leaks; there have been decades of earth contamination.
Bechtel National is contracted by DOE to oversee the construction of a vitrification plant. Vitrification means processing the waste into glass logs
The decision was made to begin construction of the plant before the design had been vetted. Consequently, there are design problems that could lead to explosions or nuclear reactions.
Senators Murray and Cantwell, et al., should be screaming at the tops of their lungs in outrage. Instead, it appears it’s up to us to make our voices heard. Surely they’d all want to hear from their constituents.
The “Green Nuclear” – Can Thorium Be The Clean, Cheap Energy Of The Future?
Mankind currently uses three basic types of energy: fossil energy (coal, gas and oil), “sustainable” energy (wind-powered, solar, geothermal, hydraulic) and nuclear energy.
None of the above passes the test of being clean, abundant, cheap and secure all at the same time. Whatever solution that would comprise all of these elements would be considered our modern society’s philosopher’s stone!
As a matter of fact, in the 1960s, American physicist Alvin Martin Weinberg, managed to create a molten salt nuclear reactor capable of withholding temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius under ambient pressure — a discovery that ruled out the risks of explosions.
Alvin Martin Weinberg in 1967 – Photo: ornl.gov
These fourth-generation reactors use thorium as fuel. This component is as common on our planet as lead. Just like Swiss physicist Jean-Christophe de Mestral observed in his recent opus “L’Atome vert” (“The Green Atom”), if used inside a molten salt reactor, the thorium waste will disintegrate 1000 times faster than uranium. Its efficiency is remarkable: one kilogram of thorium can produce the same energy as 200 kilos of uranium.
If this technology has been an option since the 1960s, why haven’t we exploited it yet? At that time, uranium-based nuclear energy was the fuel-of-choice for military reasons. Research on thorium-based reactors was no good for Cold War armies and therefore received no funding.
But today, thorium is back on the table. China and India have invested massively in it to develop their next-generation nuclear devices. NASA is also looking into it as a cheap option to create energy on the Moon or Mars. If researchers find encouraging results, they may turn the nuclear industry upside-down, for we could indeed end up with an energy that is clean, abundant, cheap and safe.
via The “Green Nuclear” – Can Thorium Be The Clean, Cheap Energy Of The Future? – All News Is Global |.
New Satellite Images Show Japan Glowing in the Dark From Space
FUKUSHIMA – Japan – New satellite images from space have revealed amazing pictures of the irradiated country glowing bright from space.
NASA spokesman, Geoff Kukovich, spoke about the amazing pictures today at a press conference.
“Even though the pictures were taken whilst that side of the earth was in darkness, Japan is seen to be glowing bright green. It proves our worst fears are probably true about the extent of radiation emanating from the unfortunate country.”
The Japanese people are very resilient and have lived through incredible hardship over the centuries, and they will surely shrug off this rather radioactive episode as they have done many times before.
“The high levels of radiation that are leaking from Fukushima right now have their advantages. For example if I lose my sushi in a darkened room, I can see it clear as day, even in a closed fridge,” Satsumi Kendo, a physics student from Tokyo told Japanese state radio today.
via New Satellite Images Show Japan Glowing in the Dark From Space .
via New Satellite Images Show Japan Glowing in the Dark From Space .
Worst Week Since Fukushima: 4 Major Setbacks In 3 Days Are Latest
Reverse Renaissance? Experts Point to 6 Reactors on the Chopping Block and Passage of Anti-Industry Florida Law; Beleaguered Industry’s Woes Start With Bad Economics … and Go Downhill From There.
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Call it the “renaissance in reverse.” Not only is the U.S. nuclear power industry mothballing plans for planned reactors in North Carolina and Texas, it also is now pulling the plug (or threatening to do so) on existing reactors in California. All of that and the passage of anti-industry legislation in Florida happened last week (April 28th-May 3rd), easily the worst single week for the U.S. nuclear power industry since the March 2011 meltdown of nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan.
One day after the closure by Dominion Resources of the Kewaunee Power Station reactor in Wisconsin, three experts held a phone-based news conference today to comment on the recent string of adverse developments for the troubled nuclear power industry.
Peter A. Bradford , adjunct professor at the Vermont Law School, a former member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and a former utility commission chair in New York and Maine, said: “2013 is another year in which the pumps can’t keep up with the rush of water aboard the ‘nuclear renaissance.’ It’s no surprise that any utility executive with a modicum of concern for his customers’ electric bills doesn’t consider this to be the right time to build a new reactor. However, the closing of existing reactors in the face of market realities is something new, suggesting that US nuclear generation may actually have reached a peak a few years ago that it will not attain again in our lifetimes.”
Mark Cooper , senior fellow for economic analysis, Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law School, and author of “Policy Challenges of Nuclear Reactor Construction, Cost Escalation and Crowding Out Alternatives” (2009), said: “From Florida and the Carolinas to Texas and on to California, the underlying issue driving the demise of nuclear power is the same: bad and unsustainable economics. In Florida, a ratepayer rebellion in the face of rapidly rising reactor costs shared the same roots as Duke’s abandonment of two reactors in North Carolina that were projected to have doubled in cost. In Texas, only foreign government-backed entities could afford the soaring costs of the STP reactors near San Antonio. In California, Southern California Edison is seeking to sidestep hundreds of millions of dollars in costs for damaged reactors that may simply be too expensive to repair. The story of nuclear power from coast to coast is one of bad economics.”
Between Tuesday to Thursday of last week, the following things happened:
On Tuesday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) ruled that a partnership between NRG Energy Inc. and Toshiba Corp. to build the pair of proposed South Texas Project reactors violates a U.S. law prohibiting foreign control of nuclear power plants. (See http://nukefreetexas.org/downloads/staff_FOCD_determination_letter_43013.pdf and http://nukefreetexas.org/2013/05/foreign-ownership-could-halt-licensing-of-south-texas-project-nuclear-reactors-nrc-says-nina-doesnt-meet-their-requirements/.) In March, the NRC failed to strike down a similar finding that the proposed Calvert Cliffs-3 reactor project in Maryland is dominated by foreign companies. (See http://www.nirs.org/nukerelapse/calvert/prcc3commorder31113.pdf.)
Southern California Edison CEO and President Theodore F. Craver told investors Tuesday that one or both reactors at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations (SONGS) face permanent shutdown if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) does not move immediately to permit the damaged reactors to go back online without a prior hearing to determine if it is safe to do so. Costs related to the shutdown are now pegged at $553 million, including $109 million spent on inspections and repairs and $444 million for replacement power. Other estimates indicate the San Onofre debacle could cost consumers up to $3 billion. (See http://www.powermag.com/nuclear/Decision-to-Close-SONGS-Nuclear-Reactors-Could-Come-by-Late-2013_5583.html and http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/may/04/san-onofre-nuclear-plant-near-death/.)
Duke Energy announced Thursday that it will abandon plans for two nuclear reactors at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in North Carolina. Duke will seek to make Progress Energy customers, instead of corporate stockholders, pay for this blunder – and will likely try to add a mark-up, with profit, on top of the $70 million spent. (See http://www.ncwarn.org/2013/05/demise-of-harris-nukes/.) This February, Duke announced that it would not repair the damaged Crystal River reactor in Florida. (See http://www.cleanenergy.org/index.php?/Press-Update.html?form_id=8&item_id=352.)
Also Thursday, the Florida Senate sent a bill to the governor revising a 2006 law allowing utilities to charge for nuclear reactors that may never be built. To date, the “advance cost recovery” provision has permitted Florida Power & Light Co. and Duke Energy (formerly Progress Energy Florida) to collect more than $1.4 billion from customers. Even with the new legislation, the Sunshine State’s six million ratepayers will have to count on the state’s Public Service Commission to rein in industry abuses on advance cost recovery financing. (See http://www.cleanenergy.org/index.php?/Press-Update.html?form_id=8&item_id=371.)
Commenting on the setback for nuclear power in California, Daniel Hirsch , lecturer on Nuclear Policy at the University of California, Santa Cruz, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear policy nonprofit organization, and co-author of a recent study about the severity of San Onofre’s steam generator problems, said: “San Onofre is crumbling. New steam generators in both Unit 2 and 3 failed in just a year or two of operations. Each plant has hundreds of times more damaged tubes than the typical reactor with new steam generators. Southern California Edison informed investors last week that it is likely to close both reactors permanently if it can’t get the NRC to approve restart of Unit 2 with an exemption from the requirement for a prior hearing to determine its safety. That is like a judge in the Old West saying: ‘We’ll hang ’em now and give ’em a fair trial later.’ It appears that Edison is convinced that its proposal to restart the damaged reactor without repairing or replacing the crippled steam generators can’t withstand the scrutiny of a safety hearing. Whatever the industry’s hopes for a revival of nuclear power, San Onofre’s steam generators seem to be working in the opposite direction.”
CONTACT: Leslie Maloy , (703) 276-3256 or lmaloy@hastingsgroup.com; and Alex Frank , (703) 276-3264 or afrank@hastingsgroup.com.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A streaming audio replay of a related news event will be available by 5 p.m. EDT on May 8, 2013 at http://216.30.191.148/worstweek.html.
Japan Doctor: So enraged by response of gov’t — Fukushima children’s rashes, nosebleeds, diarrhea, fatigue blamed on radiation-phobia mothers
Katsuno Onozawa, a doctor of psychosomatic medicine, who has taken part in children’s health consultations in Fukushima Prefecture
What shocked me the first time I participated in January of last year was the gap between what the newspapers and TV news were reporting and the reality in Fukushima as attested to by the mothers […]
Wanting to protect their children from radiation, they pleaded with the prefectural and city governments and local doctors, but none would take their side.
They just said things like, “It’s safe. You don’t have to take any special action. There are lots of radiation-phobia mothers, and we can’t deal with them all.”
[…] I was at a loss for words because of these mothers’ situation, and I could not sleep at night because I was so enraged at the government’s heartless response. […]
Yet the children were exhibiting a range of symptoms including sore throats, nosebleeds, diarrhea, fatigue, headaches and rashes. The most dangerous thing is to write off causes of illness as psychosocial factors with statements like, “Your child’s stress comes from not being able to go outdoors” and that a “mother worrying will make her child sick.” […]
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The rEvolution will not be Properly Licensed
You want justice, clean air/oceans, liberty, natural rights, peace, animal rights, earth rights, economic stability, and freedom? There is one method of ‘activism’ that would effect mass positive change in all of those areas! Mass Civil Dis-Obedience!
Traditionally, we attempted to effect change in one of three ways. (Elections, Protest, or Violence)
1) Elections: Please understand that it is impossible to transform our world via Non-Consensual Government. We have been trying to elect moral and aware politicians for decades, and although there may have been a few, the vast majority of our Politicians are predators. It’s basically impossible to get moral people in Government when the current Predators own the Printing Presses, the Media, the Military, the Police, and have created a system of entitlement that maintains the status quo. By definition, you cannot join the mafia to make the mafia good.
2) Protest: Please understand that it is impossible to transform Society via Protest. Standing on the streets yelling and holding signs, simply does not work! May I suggest to stop yelling and waving signs while still paying ‘taxes’. Taxes are the payment for goods and services offered at the barrel of a gun. Is there any good or service so good, that it needs to shoved down your throat?
3) Violence: Using immoral methods to bring about a moral society is contradictory and does not work! Coincidentally, this is the very reason that non-consensual government does not work. Government is using immoral force on behalf of those in Government who decide what the common good is.
The only defense against tyranny and fascism is Mass Civil Dis-Obedience!
1) Put aside our religious differences. Muslims, Christians, and Atheists can stand together, shoulder to shoulder, against the predator tyrants that rule the world. Once we are free, than we can have peaceful philosophical debates.
2) Stop participating in the false left/right paradigm. If half the people in the country want to work together in social communities, sharing work, food, profits, etc. and the other half want to live more independent than both are ok! There is no reason why every single person should be forced to live the way the rulers of the collective decide. By keeping the country divided roughly 50/50, the predator minority maintains control. Other than natural law/rights (no violence or violation of rights), all other rules should require consent of the individual, similar to contract law! In a free society we can have thousands or millions of flavors of communities that voluntarily choose social obligations.
3) Go ahead and try to effect change in Government and keep protesting, but most importantly ‘Dis-Obey’ immoral laws and stop paying taxes! Support those who dis-obey immoral laws. Ask yourself, is he/she hurting another in anyway. Other than the laws pertaining to violence and violation of rights, all other rules need to be consented too. Do unto others as you would want done to you!
4) If the Environmental is of importance than realize that the taxes you pay to the Government are used to not only protect guilty corporations (via the EPA and the Corporate Veil) but also used as subsidies (corporate welfare) to enhance their filthy ways. Sure, keep on reducing your need for GMO foods, Fossil Fuels, etc, but you must refuse to pay and participate in the destruction of the Environment. Guiltless corporations do not dump trillions of gallons of oil into the ocean, people do – and they need to be held responsible or environmental destruction will not end! Do not engage in Violence acts towards corporations, simply stop contributing to them and believing in the illusion of Government!
5) If the WAR is of importance than realize that the taxes you pay to the Government are used to perpetuate wars, not end them. Paying taxes for bombs used to annihilate innocent civilians is immoral. Sure, a few bad guys may have been killed, but the point is Control, not protection. The only way war will end is when we stop paying for the wars and the individuals within the military decide to put down the guns. Self-Defense is ok, but do not initiate violence.
6) If Freedom and Liberty are of importance than you already realize that the bigger Government becomes the less Freedom and Rights you have. BUT – please expand your understanding of Freedom and Liberty to also include Animals and Mother Earth. Stop supporting the factories that measure production by the number of Animals they process a minute or by how small of a space they can jam the most amount of animals, it’s disgusting! Yes, we need energy but associating Green with higher costs comes from from fear of the ‘Left’. Help the Left understand that they don’t need more rules and more taxes to be Green, and then spend a few extra $$ and time to make ‘Green’ choices.
7) It’s all about deleting our ‘programming’. We have been programmed by our Media, Governments, Education, and Dogmatic Religions to be divisive slaves. Reprogram yourself to more understanding and to listen better..
Current Civil Dis-Obedience waiting for the masses.
Rebecca Campbell vs the US – http://nowisthetime.us/about/
OPPT – Foreclosing on the Bankrupt Corporate Governments – http://oppt-in.com/
ITCCS – Found many leaders Guilty of Crimes against humanity – http://itccs.org/
Marc Stevens ‘No State Project’ – 90% success rate in court, simply asking for Proof of Jurisdiction. http://marcstevens.net/
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists – Journalists who found that the very leaders who enforcing taxes are hiding their income from being taxed in offshore tax havens – http://www.icij.org
Green Shadow Government – https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m3zNyEIR-Ww – http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16102-another-government-is-necessary-the-people-can-rule-better-than-the-elites – http://clearingthefogradio.org/earth-day-celebration-announcement-of-green-shadow-cabinet-with-cheri-honkala-christopher-cox-and-sean-sweeney/
War Tax Resistors – http://www.nwtrcc.org/ – http://www.warresisters.org/ – http://wartaxboycott.org
Proofs that the Income Tax is illegal – Bill Benson http://www.thelawthatneverwas.com/ – Sherry Jackson (Ex-IRS) http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd320.htm – Joe Banister (Ex-IRS Enforcer) – Larken Rose and his section 861