Ea O Ka Aina: Nuclear Weapons

Showing posts with label Nuclear Weapons. Show all posts

Nuke waste with nowhere to go

SOURCE: Katherine Muzik PHD (kmuzik@gmail.com)
SUBHEAD: Nevada says "Not in My Back Yard" on Trump revival of Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

By Julia Travers on 23 April 2017 for Truth Out -
(http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40278-nevada-says-not-in-my-back-yard-on-trump-revival-of-yucca-mountain-nuclear-waste-dump)

Image above: Aerial view of rdge line of the geological formation in Yucca Mountain proposed as site for America's nuclear waste storage. There is no current operational site in the country since the WIPP facility experienced a meltdown in 2014 that produced a plume of plutonium waste over New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. From (http://www.hcn.org/articles/is-yucca-mountain-back-on-the-table).

The underground Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada built by the Department of Energy to determine whether the location was suitable as a deep geological nuclear waste repository. Courtesy of the Department of Energy.

President Trump's preliminary 2018 budget proposal was released in March and along with many cuts to environmental programs, it includes $120 million to restart licensing operations for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository (Yucca Mountain).

This currently unused underground facility in Nevada has been in contention since the 80s and was strongly opposed during the Obama Administration by both the President and then Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). While Reid pronounced Yucca Mountain dead in 2016, the new administration has big plans for the abandoned project.

Yucca Mountain consists of a five-mile-long tunnel that was drilled 1,000 feet deep in 1994, into a volcanic structure located 100 miles from Las Vegas.

Theoretically, nuclear waste would be stored inside rooms along the tunnel -- the idea being to isolate it from the surrounding environment for hundreds of thousands of years with the use of titanium shielding.

Nevada officials have put up strong resistance to the nuclear storage facility, dating back to its inception in 1987. The state has filed over 200 contentions against the application, encompassing a wide range of issues from legal concerns to volcanic hazard estimates, corrosion and toxic contamination risks.

In 1982, President Reagan signed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which called for the establishment of nuclear waste disposal dumps.

The Department of Energy (DOE) was tasked with carrying out site assessments but, according to The Atlantic, "politicians didn't want to pay for the expensive and lengthy technical assessments of all the potential sites," and amended the Act to designate Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the one permanent storage location in 1987.

The initial goal was to keep the waste contained at Yucca Mountain for at least 10,000 years.

"Yucca Mountain was never a scientific selection, it was a political one," nuclear industry expert and former nuclear engineer, executive and whistleblower Arnold "Arnie" Gundersen told EnviroNews.

"When the Yucca Mountain bill was passed, it was called the 'Screw Nevada Bill.'

To revive Yucca is to ignore science. We have a nuclear waste problem that needs to be -- in fact must be solved, and if done wrong can contaminate the environment for 250,000 years. Let's have a scientific process that leads us to the best alternative, not a political mandate," Gundersen continued.

In 1997, the US Government began heating and burying metal containers in the rocks at Yucca Mountain in an effort to simulate and study radioactive waste. Gundersen stated Yucca Mountain has been proven to have an underground water and waste seepage issue.

Examples of studies of the rates of seepage at Yucca Mountain and how they are affected by temperature, time, geology and precipitation can be found on the US Department of the Interior and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory websites.

The State of Nevada's Nuclear Waste Project Office states because Yucca Mountain is "geologically and hydrologically active and complex," it is unsafe for the disposal of radioactive substances, which "could leak from the dump and create serious long-term health risks to the citizens of Nevada."

In 2004, the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled the DOE would have to prove it could keep the waste contained for hundreds of thousands of years, not tens of thousands, as originally proposed.

In 2008, the DOE submitted a license application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to store high-level waste at Yucca Mountain. But in 2010, the DOE shut down the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, which had run Yucca Mountain, effectively shelving the project.

In 2014, the NRC ruled Yucca Mountain could safely assure the isolation of nuclear materials over the long-term and was safe to use. Trump now proposes to supply an initial $120 million to restart the licensing process for Yucca Mountain.

The LA Times reports the full establishment of the Yucca Mountain facility has an estimated total cost of $100 billion, rivaling the price tag of the International Space Station.

Much of this lofty budget is attributed to the potential construction of hundreds of miles of railroad tracks to carry the waste from all over the country, protective titanium shields and specialized underground robots that can handle the waste.

"Republican, Democrat, independent -- there is enormous opposition to Yucca Mountain," Robert Halstead, Executive Director of Nevada's Agency for Nuclear Projects, told The Atlantic. The state is currently preparing a new slew of contentions to the project.

"The first thing we're going to do is go back to court and sue them over the radiation protection standard," he added. The article explains that critics of this facility worry the groundwater could corrode storage containers and cause a radioactive leak.

Image above: Diagram of Yucca Mountain tunnel with possible radioactive waste in tunnel on site. From (http://ethangreenapes.weebly.com/yucca-mountain.html).

In late March, DOE Secretary Rick Perry visited Yucca Mountain and met with Nevada's Republican Governor, Brian Sandoval. According to CNBC, Sandoval said, "The storage of high-level waste at Yucca Mountain is not something I am willing to consider."

In a DOE statement, Perry acknowledged Sandoval's opposition and also said, "today's meeting with Gov. Sandoval was the first step in a process that will involve talking with many federal, state, local and commercial stakeholders."

Nevada officials who oppose Yucca Mountain cite concerns over radioactive spills or leaks and the toll that could take on Las Vegas' tourism industry (not to mention public and environmental health). E&E News points out the possible impact on the tourism industry brings up a potential concern and conflict of interest for Trump, who co-owns Trump International Hotel Las Vegas with billionaire businessman Phil Ruffin.

"Clearly if there was a nuclear accident, Trump's hotel would be impacted, as would others along the Strip," said former Sen. Richard Bryan (D-NV), who is now Chairman of the state's Commission on Nuclear Projects.

In contrast, local officials in Nye County, where the facility would be located, are more supportive of Yucca Mountain as a jobs-creator. Dan Schinhofen, Chairman of the county's Board of Commissioners, wrote to Republican Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, a supporter of Yucca Mountain, and characterized the threats to Trump's hotel as "misinformation."

Schinhofen also says Nye County hopes to be considered for an interim storage facility site as well, saying they already have a 1,280-acre location in mind. Developing an interim-storage facility while Yucca Mountain is prepared is another ongoing debated issue.

The DOE explains there are 61 commercially operating nuclear power plants with 99 nuclear reactors in the US, with four more reactors currently being constructed. Current nuclear utilities have 79,000 metric tons of spent fuel in reserve and produce 2,000 more annually, the LA Times reports.

The LA Times also explained the nation's nuclear utilities have long been paying fees for waste storage services that the DOE has not provided. That fund now totals about $36 billion.

Nuclear utilities have won $6.1 billion in settlements to date regarding this failure on behalf of the DOE.

Shimkus states, "Without Yucca Mountain, DOE will not be able to meet its disposal commitments to Colorado, Idaho, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington." Yucca Mountain's current legal waste limit is 70,000 tons.

At present, nuclear waste is most commonly stored in tanks, casks, drums and water-cooled pools. Many facilities and containers in use are not designed for long-term storage. For example, the Hanford site in Washington is well-known for its toxic leaking tanks, the cleanup of which is expected to take another 50 years and cost $110 billion. In 2014, a drum of radioactive waste exploded at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, which serves as a dump for waste from nuclear weapons production.

The LA Times shared in 2016, "Thousands of tons of radioactive waste that were headed for [WIPP] are backed up in Idaho, Washington, New Mexico and elsewhere," including at the Hanford site.

Cooling pools are not an ideal solution either. In 2011 an earthquake in Japan knocked out power to the cooling pumps at the Fukushima Daiichi power station, which resulted in meltdowns in three nuclear reactors. The environmental effects are far reaching and still evolving today.

Dealing with nuclear waste is a mounting concern and while there have been some isolated useful applications and solutions found, many of them are not viable over the long term or intended for extensive deployment. For example, in 2016, British scientists turned nuclear waste into long-lasting nuclear diamond batteries for potential use in space travel, but this option is costly and not scalable.

Gundersen explained that vitrification, another possibility that has been explored, is "a process that adds chemicals to the waste, which is then heated into a glass like substance." But, he says it shows "no evidence that 100 years from now the material will not break down and leak into groundwater anyway!"

In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council wrote in Disposition of High-Level Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel, "After four decades of study, geological disposal remains the only scientifically and technically credible long-term solution available."

"Deep geologic disposal is the only alternative, in an area proven to be free of water," concludes Gundersen. "Yucca has water seeping in, and has been proven to let waste seep out in a short period of time."

Image above: The underground Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada built by the Department of Energy to determine whether the location was suitable as a deep geological nuclear waste repository. Courtesy of the Department of Energy. From (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yucca_Mountain_tunnel.jpg).

• Julia Travers is a journalist and author. She holds a BA in Literary and Cultural Studies from The College of William and Mary and a BFA in Art Education from Virginia Commonwealth University.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Nuclear Power Zombies 5/12/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Nuclear Wasteland 8/6/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Molten Salt Nuclear Reactors 9/25/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Worse than you think 5/21/14
Ea O Ka Aina: The false science of science 9/2/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Ginger Beer Recipe 3/24/14
Ea O Ka Aina: WIPP radiation release timeline 3/3/14
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Fukushima worse than ever

SUBHEAD: It may be out of the headlines, but the danger from meltdowns has only begun.

By Juan Wilson on 5 February 2017 for Island Breath -
(http://enenews.com/alert-collapse-imminent-at-fukushima-tv-officials-find-large-section-under-reactor-is-unstable-about-to-collapse-bad-bad-news-time-to-reconsider-that-trip-to-the-east-coast-of-jap)

Image above: Tepco diagram of robotic examination below the pressure vessel of Fukushima Daiichi #2 pressure vessel show gaping holes spanning two meters (six feet) where it is believed melted nuclear cor material past through grill and continues to mix with ground water. . From (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/02/03/national/fukushima-radiation-level-highest-since-march-11/#.WJeOoRAnr6h).

Island Breath has not been covering day to day events at the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. News has been thinner over the last year. However, recently sources like ENE News have been reporting alarming news about the intensity and volume of radioactive core material that is now directly exposed to the environment and is being transferred into and across the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese and American governments are in deep denial about the implications of this ongoing catastrophe that is increasingly damaging life in the Pacific hemisphere. This is likely because the only conclusion one can make is that nuclear power and nuclear weapons are literally a dead end. They have no future on a living planet. In fact, they are in the process of killing it.

Corporations and the military know that without the threat of nuclear war and the energy provided by nuclear power that the techno-industrial society that we live in and depend on for all our "modern conveniences" (or dependencies) could not exist. Therefore, they must insist that Fukushima poses no threat to all life on Earth.

In the meantime the slowmotion death of the Pacific Ocean grinds on with the assistance of the US Navy in Hawaii conducting weapons tests with approved "takes" of whales, seals and dolphins among others.

It would seem that the Japanese government has entered a self delusional state. It hunts whales in foreign country sanctuaries and thinks it can pull off a summer Olympics in and around Tokyo in three years. But even more disturbing is its desire to keep Mistubishi and Toshiba operating on nuclear power as it continues to downplay the impact of the Fukushima disaster.

Read the following and weep for the planet.

ENENews, on February 3rd, 2017
ALERT: Collapse imminent at Fukushima — TV: Officials find large section under reactor is “unstable… about to collapse” — “Bad, bad news… Time to reconsider that trip to the east coast of Japan” (VIDEOS)

ENENews, on February 2nd, 2017
“Unimaginable”: Record high radiation levels at Fukushima plant — “Gaping hole” found under containment vessel — Officials now admit: “It’s highly possible melted fuel leaked through” — Concern over radioactive gas leaks (PICS & VIDEO)

ENENews, on February 1st, 2017
VIDEO: US states hit with “extremely large peaks” of Fukushima radioactive material – “Significant amount” of plutonium released for months – Radioactivity from plant “measured globally” and blanketed entire Northern Hemisphere

ENENews, on January 31st, 2017
“Unprecedented”: Fukushima reactor “far worse than previously thought” — “Melted fuel has come in contact with underground water” — Molten core appears spread over “extensive area” — Japan “will have a much more difficult time decommissioning” — Official: “It’s a very big turning point” (VIDEO)

http://www.islandbreath.org/2017Year/02/170205gapingholebig.jpg

World Is preparing for War

SUBHEAD: Mikhail Gorbachev says wars must be outlawed, because it cannot resolve any of the global problems we are facing.

By Andrea Germanos on 27 January 2017 for COmmon Dreams -
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/27/mikhail-gorbachev-appears-world-preparing-war)

Image above: And it won't be merely a trade war if current trends go off the rails. From (http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/25/trade-war-between-china-and-the-us-is-a-lose-lose--state-media.html).

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has warned that it appears "as if the world is preparing for war."

'Wars must be outlawed, because none of the global problems we are facing can be resolved by war,' writes former Soviet leader.

Writing in an op-ed published Thursday at TIME magazine, Gorbachev, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in ending the Cold War, writes that the most pressing problem facing the world is "the militarization of politics and the new arms race."

State budgets, he continues, claim austerity to sacrifice social spending, but easily back funding for weapons of war. At the same time, he writes of the buildup on Russia's borders: "NATO and Russian forces and weapons" are now in close proximity "as if to shoot point-blank." He continues:

Politicians and military leaders sound increasingly belligerent and defense doctrines more dangerous. Commentators and TV personalities are joining the bellicose chorus. It all looks as if the world is preparing for war.

While he and President Ronald Reagan agreed in 1985 "that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," now, "the nuclear threat once again seems real," with "advocates for arms build-up and the military-industrial complex [...] rubbing their hands." And that, he declares, is absolutely the wrong direction to solve the world's ills. Instead, war of any kind must be abolished, he writes:

In modern world, wars must be outlawed, because none of the global problems we are facing can be resolved by war—not poverty, nor the environment, migration, population growth, or shortages of resources.

He called on the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution—which should be put forth by U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin—that restates that "a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. "

In 2014 Gorbachev warned that the world was "on the brink of a new Cold War"—a situation fueled in part by the U.S. being "tortured by triumphalism."

More recently, in 2016, he said, "The window to a nuclear weapon-free world…is being shut and sealed right before our eyes."

"As long as nuclear weapons exist, there is a danger that someday they will be used as a result either of accident or technical failure or of evil intent of man, an insane person or terrorist," Gorbachev said.

Trump, however, out of step with most of the world, used Twitter to call for an expanded U.S. nuclear arsenal—a fact that contributed to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists this week moving its symbolic Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.

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Fukushima radiation on West Coast

SUBHEAD: Scientists find radioactive plume has spread throughout vast area of Pacific Ocean.

By Admin on 9 December 2017 for ENE News -
(http://enenews.com/fukushima-radiation-contaminates-west-coast-fish-fears-the-countrys-food-chain-is-polluted-a-terrifying-discovery-scientist-it-appears-plume-has-spread-throughout-vast-area-from-alas)

Image above: Miscarried conjoined gray whale calves( thought to be the first ever discovered) found on beach in Laguna Ojo de Liebre in Baja California, Mexico in January 2014. Photo by Jesus Gomez. From (http://www.storyleak.com/scientists-discover-conjoined-gray-whale-calves-dying-near-west-coast/).

[IB Publisher's note: This is less than a surprise. It is obvious much of the actual gathered information has not been revealed. Check out the meager published information accumulated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and think about how much more information has been gathered by the US Navy, NASA and other agencies of the United States government. Such knowledge, if made public would end nuclear power, and subsequently the nuclear weapons industries. More impact to us who live in Hawaii, it would also destroy the Pacific Ocean fishing industry and tourism to Hawaii. In other words, we don't want to know the truth!]

The Tribune, Jan 5, 2017 and updated Jan 9, 2017
(emphasis added): UCUT study finds trace amounts of radiation in migratory salmon Columbia River – In early December, a number of news agencies reported seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear plant was detected in the Pacific Ocean along on the West Coast.

The plant… is feared to still be contaminating the ocean. The impact of the radiation in the Columbia River—and on migratory salmon that spend their developmental years in the Pacific—is still relatively unknown, but recent studies point to causes for concern. Last year, the Okanagan Nation Alliance found Cesium-134, the so-called fingerprint of Fukushima, in sockeye that had migrated up the Okanogan River to British Columbia.

Now, a study by Upper Columbia United Tribes has found trace amounts of radiation in Columbia River sockeye as well as Chinook salmon, UCUT biologist Marc Gauthier said Tuesday to the Colville Business Council’s Natural Resource Committee… In the Columbia River salmon, UCUT found… trace amounts of strontium-90, which is another Fukushima radionuclide, according to Gauthier. “There’s some unknowns, some questions that this information raises,” said Gauthier.

Castanet (BC, Canada), Dec 23, 2016:
A sockeye salmon containing trace amounts of a radioactive isotope from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan was found in Okanagan Lake. The discovery was made in the summer of 2015 by the Integrated Fukushima Ocean Radionuclide Monitoring network [InFORM]…

The organization has found eight fish with detectable levels of “artificial isotopes from human activities”… In one of those eight fish, the one found in Okanagan Lake, researchers were able to detect the element Cesium-134… UPDATE: While [InFORM] reported the Cesium-134 containing sockeye was found in Okanagan Lake, the government data the report references shows that the sockeye samples were actually taken from the Okanagan River…

Statesman Journal, Dec 7, 2016:
Fukushima radiation has reached U.S. shores — For the first time, seaborne radiation from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster has been detected on the West Coast… in seawater samples taken from Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach in Oregon, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are reporting. Because of its short half-life, cesium-134 can only have come from Fukushima.

Also for the first time, cesium-134 has been detected in a Canadian salmon, the Fukushima InFORM project, led by University of Victoria chemical oceanographer Jay Cullen, is reporting… The Oregon samples, marking the first time cesium-134 has been detected on U.S. shores, were taken in January and February of 2016… [InFORM] reported that a single sockeye salmon, sampled from Okanagan Lake in the summer of 2015, had tested positive for cesium-134… There is no significant risk to consumers, Cullen said…

A recent InFORM analysis of [Woods Hole chemical oceanographer Ken] Buesseler’s data concluded that concentrations of cesium-137 have increased considerably in the central northeast Pacific, although they still are at levels that pose no concern. “It appears that the plume has spread throughout this vast area from Alaska to California,” the scientists wrote…

Radiation levels have not yet peaked. “As the contamination plume progresses towards our coast we expect levels closer to shore to increase over the coming year,” Cullen said…

KBET, Dec 9, 2016:
RADIOACTIVE ‘FUKUSHIMA FISH’ WEST COAST USA… RADIOACTIVE fish found off the United States has raised fears the country’s food chain is polluted – and the Fukushima nuclear disaster is being blamed. Highly toxic Cesium-134 – the “fingerprint” of Fukushima – was found in Tillamook Bay and Gold Beach, Oregon.

The terrifying discovery was reported by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution… Radiation levels have not yet peaked as a toxic plume makes its way towards the United States.

CBS News (transcript excerpt), Dec 9, 2016:
Officials are continuing to monitor the situation, saying the bulk of radiation from the Fukushima plant has not yet made its way across the Pacific.

Video above: CBS News broadcast. From (https://youtu.be/Mv2l-oE7nBI).

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Hawaii Seafood Guide Update 1/1/17
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima cleanup cost doubles 12/9/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Tokyo damaged by nuclear pellet rain 9/24/16
Ea O KA Aina: Nuclear Power and Climate Failure 8/24/16
Ea O Ka Aina: High radioactivity in Tokyo 8/22/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Nuclear Blinders 8/18/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima and Chernobyl 5/29/16
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute: Our Radioactive Ocean 5/20/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima radiation damages Japan 4/14/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima's Nuclear Nightmare 3/13/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Fifth Fukushima Anniversary 3/11/16
A Green Journal: Fukushima Nano Bucky Ball Hot Particles 2/19/16
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima impacts are ongoing 11/8/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Petroleum and Nuclear Coverups 10/21/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Radiation Contamination 10/13/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Radioactive floods damage Japan 9/22/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fir trees damaged by Fukushima 8/30/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Japan restarts a nuclear plant 8/11/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima disaster will continue 7/21/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Too many fish in the sea? 6/22/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima prefecture uninhabitable 6/6/15
Ea O Ka Aina: In case you've forgotten Fukushima 5/27/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Radiation damages top predator bird 4/24/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukshima die-offs occurring 4/17/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Impact Update 4/13/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima - the end of atomic power 3/13/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Where is the Fukushima Data? 2/21/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fuku-Undo 2/4/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima MOX fuel crossed Pacific 2/4/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima worst human disaster 1/26/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Japan to kill Pacific Ocean 1/23/15
Ea O Ka Aina: Japan's Environmental Catastrophe 8/25/14
ENE News: Nuclear fuel found 15 miles from Tokyo 8/10/14 Ea O Ka Aina: Earthday TPP Fukushima RIMPAC 4/22/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Daiichi hot particles 5/30/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Japanese radiation denial 5/12/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Entomb Fukushima Daiichi now 4/6/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Disaster 3 Years Old 4/3/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Tsunami, Fukushima and Kauai 3/9/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Japanese contamination 2/16/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Bill for Fukushima monitoring 2/9/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Tepco under reporting of radiation 2/9/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Fallout in Alaska 1/25/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima engineer against nukes 1/17/14
Ea O Ka Aina: California to monitor ocean radiation 1/14/14
Ea O Ka Aina: Demystifying Fukushima Reactor #3 1/1/14
Ea O Ka Aina: US & Japan know criticality brewing 12/29/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Forever 12/17/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Brief radiation spike on Kauai 12/27/13
Ea O Ka Aina: USS Ronald Reagan & Fukushima 12/15/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Pacific Impact 12/11/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Berkeley and Fukushima health risks 12/10/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Madness engulfs Japan 12/4/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Edo Japan and Fukushima Recovery 11/30/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Reaction to Fukushima is Fascism 11/30/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Radioisotopes in the Northern Pacific 11/22/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima cleanup in critical phase 11/18/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima fuel removal to start 11/14/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima, What me worry? 11/13/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Remove other Fukushina fuel 10/29/13
Ea O Ka Aina: End to Japanese Nuclear Power? 10/3/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima & Poisoned Fish 10/3/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fuel Danger at Fukushima 9/27/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Reactor #4 Spent Fuel Pool 9/16/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima is Not Going Away 9/9/13
Ea O Ka Aina: X-Men like Ice Wall for Fukushima 9/3/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima House of Horrors 8/21/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Apocalypse 8/21/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Radioactive Dust 8/20/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Cocooning Fukushima Daiichi 8/16/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima radiation coverup 8/12/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Leakage at Fukushima an emergency 8/5/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima burns on and on 7/26/13
Ea O Ka Aina: What the Fukashima? 7/24/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Spiking 7/15/13
Ea O Ka Aina: G20 Agenda Item #1 - Fix Fukushima 7/7/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima and hypothyroid in Hawaii 4/9/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Japan to release radioactive water 2/8/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima as Roshoman 1/14/13
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushia Radiation Report 10/24/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Fallout 9/14/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Unit 4 Danger 7/22/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima denial & extinction ethics 5/14/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima worse than Chernobyl 4/24/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima dangers continue 4/22/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima children condemned 3/8/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima fights chain reaction 2/7/12
Ea O Ka Aina: Tepco faking Fukushima fix 12/24/11
Ea O Ka Aina: The Non Battle for Fukushima 11/10/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Debris nears Midway 10/14/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Radiation Danger 7/10/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Abandoned 9/28/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Deadly Radiation at Fukushima 8/3/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima poisons Japanese food 7/25/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Black Rain in Japan 7/22/11
Ea O Ka Aina: UK PR downplays Fukushima 7/1/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima #2 & #3 meltdown 5/17/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima sustained chain reaction 5/3/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Ocean Radioactivity in Fukushima 4/16/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Japan raises nuclear disaster level 4/12/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima No Go Zone Expanding 4/11/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima to be Decommissioned 4/8/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Poisons Fish 4/6/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Learning from Fukushima 4/4/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Leak goes Unplugged 4/3/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Stick a fork in it - It's done! 4/2/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima reactors reach criticality 3/31/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Non-Containment 3/30/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Meltdown 3/29/11
Ea O Ka Aina: Fukushima Water Blessing & Curse 3/28/11
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Fukushima's radiation impact

SUBHEAD: EPA's Emergency Radiation Limits are coverup for danger of Fukushima's continued pollution.

By Mike Ludwig on 10 January 2017 for Truth Out -
(http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39044-are-the-epa-s-emergency-radiation-limits-a-cover-for-fukushima-fumbles)

Image above: Illustration of Godzilla, the monster awoken from below the ocean by nuclear bombs. From (http://radioactivechat.blogspot.com/2012/01/fukushima-daiichi-running-without.html).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is poised to issue guidelines that would set radiation limits for drinking water during the "intermediate period" after the releases from a radioactive emergency, such as an accident at a nuclear power plant, have been brought under control.
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Opponents say that under the proposed guidelines, concentration limits for several types of radionuclides would allow a lifetime permissible dose in a week or a month, or the equivalent of 250 chest x-rays a year, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a watchdog group that represents government employees.

The EPA has stressed that the proposal is aimed at guiding state and local leaders during a crisis and would not change existing federal radiation limits for the water we drink every day, which are much more stringent, and assume there may be decades of regular consumption.

Critics of the new proposal say the emergency guidelines are a public relations ploy to play down the dangers of radiation and provide cover for an agency that fumbled during the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

The emergency limits are even higher than those proposed by the EPA during the final days of the Bush administration, which withdrew the proposal after facing public scrutiny and left the Obama administration with the job of finalizing the guidelines.

Now, in the twilight of the Obama administration, the EPA's "Protective Action Guidelines" for drinking water are once again drawing fire from nuclear watchdogs and public officials.

"The message here is that the American public should learn to love radiation, and that much higher levels than what are set by the statutory limits are OK," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a watchdog group that represents government employees.

PEER says that internal documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show the EPA's radiation division hid proposed limits for dozens of radionuclides from the public -- and even from other divisions within the agency that were critical of the plan -- in order to "avoid confusion" until the final guidelines were released.

"It's not like this has been done with a lot of openness," Ruch said. "We had to sue them to find out what levels they would allow."

EPA Caught With Its "Pants Down" During Fukushima
In 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan suffered a meltdown after a deadly earthquake and tsunami and released massive amounts of dangerous radioactive contaminants into the ocean and atmosphere.

Ruch said the EPA was caught with its "pants down" as this radiation was detected in air, rainwater and even milk in the United States. The EPA had been working since the early 1990s to develop guidelines on how the government should respond to such a disaster, but specific limits for radiation in drinking water are only now being set.

As Truthout reported at the time, the EPA told the public that radiation from the disaster would not reach the US at levels high enough to pose a public health concern, even as the agency's own data showed concentrations of radionuclides in rain water far exceeding federal drinking water standards.

As Japan struggled with a major nuclear crisis and the media debated the relative danger of radioactive plumes blowing about the world's atmosphere, the EPA quietly stopped running extra tests for radiation less than two months after the disaster began.

By then, samples of cow's milk, rain and drinking water from across the country tested positive for radiation from the Fukushima plant, and nuclear critics warned that it was difficult to tell whether there could be impacts on human health in the absence of enhanced radiation monitoring.

The EPA's radiation division is now on the verge of approving a long-awaited update to its Protective Action Guidelines for responding to such a "large-scale emergency."

Ruch said employees from other divisions of the EPA were cut out of the decision-making process, and internal EPA documents indicate that the concentration limits were set higher than those detected during Fukushima to cover for the EPA's embarrassing performance.

Ruch points to notes from a 2014 briefing at the EPA's radiation division, which state that the agency "experienced major difficulty conveying its message to the public" that concentrations of radioactive material in rain water, although higher than federal Maximum Containment Levels (MCLs), "were not of immediate concern to public health" during the Fukushima crisis.

No Safe Dose of Radiation
The EPA's new proposed guidelines are ostensibly meant to help public officials decide when to take protective actions to reduce exposure to radiation, such as asking the public to switch from tap water to bottled water.

Most of the manual has already been finalized, except for the section on drinking water, which has been mired in controversy since the Bush administration.

In June, the EPA put the proposal up for public comment, but only made limits for four types of radionuclides publicly available. Critics say the agency still received 60,000 comments opposing the guidelines, including statements from 65 environmental groups.

PEER sued the agency under the Freedom of Information Act in October, and the EPA released the proposed limits for dozens of other radionuclides just days before the Christmas holiday.

Dan Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear watchdog group, attended a briefing with EPA officials on Thursday and told Truthout that the agency intends to finalize the guidelines despite ongoing protests.

"It's really hard to believe," Hirsch said.

Underlying the debate are MCLs for radioactive material in drinking water set by the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. Hirsch said that the nuclear industry has tried to "get out from under" these limits for years, but federal law prohibits them from being lowered. So, the industry and its allies at the EPA focused on the Protective Action Guidelines instead.

The MCLs are based on the idea that adults should not be exposed to more than 4 millirem (mrem) of radiation in drinking water each year for a 70-year period, for a total of 280 mrem in an average lifetime.

Since the "intermediate phase" following a nuclear emergency is expected to be temporary, the emergency radionuclide limits are capped at amounts that would expose adults to a maximum 500 mrem dose of radiation over the course of a year.

Hirsch said that such as dose of radiation is equivalent to receiving a chest x-ray about five days a week for a year. The EPA arrived at these figures by "playing" with the numbers used to calculate radiation absorbed by human organs, which in turn increased the amount of certain radionuclides that can be present in drinking water by hundreds, thousands and even tens of thousands of times.

Hirsch said guidelines reflect the nuclear industry's longstanding argument that MCLs are far too low, and the public should accept higher doses of radiation as permissible in an emergency.

The EPA claims there have been "advancements in scientific understanding of radiation dose and risk" since it began drawing up the Protective Action Guidelines back in 1992, and its emergency dose guidelines are based on the "latest science." The guidelines are also designed to provide flexibility for decision-makers responding to a crisis.

Nuclear critics, however, argue that no dose of radiation is safe. Even small doses can cause cancer in small portions of a large population.

"The science has actually worked in the opposite direction over the years," Hirsch said. "Science has concluded that radiation is much more dangerous than what was assumed in the '70s."

The guidelines are based on expected exposure over the course of one year, but both Ruch and Hirsch point out that radiation from nuclear calamity could persist for far longer -- just look at the fallout from Fukushima, which Japan has struggled with for years.

Radiation from the disaster is still being detected in fish on North America's western coast. They argue that the public needs better protections in the event of an emergency, and the nuclear industry should not be let off the hook based on inflated safety limits.

"The whole thing appears to be [an attempt to] achieve a post-incident reaction of 'don't worry be happy,'" Ruch said.

When even small doses of radiation are understood to pose a health risk, however small, setting radiation limits for a nuclear emergency is bound to be controversial.

Unfortunately, this is the radioactive reality of living in the modern nuclear world.

• Mike Ludwig is an investigative reporter at Truthout and a contributor to the Truthout anthology, Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Follow him on Twitter: @ludwig_mike.

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