Ambient office  = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 142 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 86 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 76 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 83 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 142 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 86 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 76 nanosieverts per hour

Pacific Cod – Caught in USA = 94 nanosieverts per hour

       Spent nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors is a global problem. None of the countries that host nuclear power reactors have a good permanent solution for disposal of spent nuclear fuel. There are test projects to build permanent geological repositories for such nuclear waste, but the U.S. canceled its work on a repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada in 2009 and there won’t be any such repository until at least 2050 in the U.S. Then there is nuclear waste left over from nuclear weapons development. The U.S. does have such a repository in New Mexico. Other countries are still trying to find ways to deal with nuclear waste.
       Last January, the U.K. government worked to restart its efforts to find a community that was willing to accept the siting of a nuclear waste dump in their area. They attempted to locate a willing community five years ago, but the effort failed. Now members of the U.K. Parliament are saying that they won’t rule out siting a nuclear waste dump under a national park. Critics of that possibility say that such a move could seriously impact the eight-billion-dollar income from use of national parks by the public.
       The National Trust and eighteen other conservations groups in the UK have sent an open letter to the nuclear energy minister opposing suggestions that the Lake District be considered for a nuclear waste dump. The Lake District is the biggest national park in England and a World Heritage site. It is also located near Sellafield which currently contains most of the nuclear waste in the U.K.
       In the open letter, groups such as the Woodland Trust and the Campaign to Protect Rural England said that the nuclear energy minister could risk damaging “long-established protections” that are given to national parks.
       The minister has said that a deep geological nuclear waste facility would be similar to a potash mine that is being planned for a national park in North Yorkshire. He said that the nuclear waste facility like the planned potash mine would “leave very little blot on the landscape”.
       The open letter from the conservation groups also said, “We recognize that safe disposal of nuclear waste is one of the key challenges our society currently faces but this should not be used as an excuse to put at risk the huge range of benefits these areas deliver for society, the environment and the economy.”
       When asked, the nuclear energy minister stated that he would not exclude national parks as possible locations for a deep geological facility for the disposal of nuclear waste. He said, “I am not saying we should have them on national parks, but it would be very wrong to exclude them at the moment in this big policy statement.” Other members of parliament have said that “we cannot afford to restrict the siting process” and “most of the facility will be underground.”
        Members of Parliament on the business, energy, and industrial strategy select committee said that national parks should not be excluded when considering siting for a national nuclear waste dump. A Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy spokesperson said, “Legislation already ensures developments in national parks can only proceed in exceptional circumstances and must be appropriate and proportionate.”
        The GDF Watch is monitoring the process for siting a facility. The Director of the GDF Watch said that there was zero chance of a nuclear waste dump being sited under a national park because local communities which have the final say would never approve.
U.K. Lake District:

Ambient office  = 73 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Organic carrot from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water =120 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

       Nuclear power is supported by a global network of companies supplying technology, services and fuel to the operators of nuclear power plants. When there are trade disputes between nations, sometimes this can have an effect on companies that run nuclear power plants in the U.S. Recently, the U.S. has been imposing tariffs on imports and has been hit with reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods being exported. This may pose a problem for the import of uranium fuel for nuclear power plants.
       Ur-Energy Inc and Energy Fuels Inc lodged a complaint with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) this summer that foreign competitors in the nuclear fuels market are subsidized by their governments and that this unfair competition has resulted in the two companies reducing their output and laying off workers. The DoC began a “Section 232” investigation into uranium imports in July of this year in response to the complaints.
        President Trump wants to help domestic industries such as nuclear fuel production by imposing tariffs on foreign competitors but if he imposes uranium tariffs on foreign companies, then the cost of operation will go up for operators of U.S. nuclear power reactors. This goes against Trump’s desire to support the U.S. nuclear industry.
        David Tamasi is a spokesperson for the Ad Hoc Utilities Group (AHUG). He said, “Imposing additional regulatory burdens on the already struggling nuclear energy industry will put 100,000 good paying domestic jobs and careers at risk and is inconsistent with President Trump’s and the Department of Energy’s policy pronouncements.”
        The Trump administration has been working on keeping U.S. nuclear and coal power plants open which are in danger of shutting down under the pressure of cheap natural gas and renewables dropping in cost.
       Uranium is used for the generation of twenty percent of U.S. electricity in ninety-eight commercial nuclear power reactors for industrial and home use. Uranium is also used for the creation of nuclear weapons and to power aircraft carriers and submarines. The U.S. nuclear industry says that for these reasons, a diverse supply of uranium is very important to the U.S. economy and national security.
       As of 2017, about fifty eight percent of the U.S. uranium supply came from the U.S., Canada and Australia. Russia supplied sixteen percent, Kazakhstan supplied eleven percent, Uzbekistan supplied five percent, Namibia supplied five percent, South Africa suppled two percent and Niger supplied two percent.
        Jeffrey Klenda is the president and CEO at Ur-Energy, and Mark Chalmers is the president and CEO at Energy Fuels. They issued a joint statement that said, “If the U.S. uranium mining industry does not survive, we will essentially hand over to unfriendly countries control of our nuclear sector.”
      The DoC says that the investigation is still under way. It is just one of multiple investigations being carried out under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act on 1962.
This law is a hold-over from the Cold War years and, up until recently, has rarely been used.
       There have already been probes by the Trump administration on steel and aluminum that have resulted in tariffs and quotas on those commodities. This has, in turn, resulted in retaliatory tariffs imposed by trading partners such as Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Ambient office  = 90 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 95 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 107 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 99 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 80 nanosieverts per hour