I have mentioned before that the spent fuel pools at U.S. nuclear reactors are rapidly filling up and will all be full within five years if none of the spent fuel assemblies are removed. Currently, the spent fuel pools hold about five times as many fuel assemblies as the cores of operating reactors. Unless some of the spent fuel assemblies are removed soon, it will not be possible to refuel reactors and they will need to be shut down.

        The U.S. government promised that there would be a permanent geological repository for spent fuel assemblies by 1999. Yucca Mountain in Nevada had been selected for such a repository and much preliminary work had been done when the project was cancelled in 2009. There is no current project to site and build a permanent repository. The best estimates are that there will be no permanent repository until 2050 at the earliest.

         Spent fuel pools are especially vulnerable to accidents or terrorist attacks. A recent NRC study that evaluated the possible consequences of a fire at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania where spent fuel rods burned concluded that such a fire would lead to forty thousand additional cancer deaths, almost a thousand square miles of evacuated territory and more than four million people being displaced.

        There has been a push in the nuclear industry and the U.S. government to move some of the spent fuel assemblies from the spent fuel pool to steel and concrete dry casks on site. The study mentioned above found that if the spent fuel assemblies older than five years in the pools were moved to dry cask, the repercussions of such a fire would be greatly reduced.

        Aside from the considerable cost of this alternative, there are problems with the current dry cask designs. Chemical reactions can produce gas in the casks which could lead to explosions and fires. New cask designs are being developed but prototypes will not be available until 2017 at the earliest. So storage is filling up and time is running out to find alternatives.

       The Nuclear Regulatory Commission just met and voted on whether or not to mandate on site dry cask storage. The vote was four to one against accelerating the transfer of spent fuel assemblies to dry cask storage. The Commission also voted that “no further generic assessments be pursued related to possible regulatory actions to require the expedited transfer of spent fuel to dry cask storage.”

        Given that the spent fuel pools are filling up and there is no permanent geological repository, this would seem to be strange policy vote on the part of the NRC. The reason for the decision was apparently that although such a fire would be catastrophic, the probability of such a fire was very small so no action needed to be taken. Unfortunately, the NRC study did not include the possibility of a terrorist attack. Given that an terrorist attack on a spent fuel pool could be devastating, spent fuel pools would be a prime target for terrorists. In Ukraine, there have already concerns that an escalating military confrontation could lead to deliberate attacks on Ukraine nuclear power plants.

       Deliberately disregarding terrorist attacks in consideration of moving spent fuel assemblies to dry casks is a glaring omission in the NRC study and decision. The NRC has not taken important action to insure the safety of U.S. citizens from the disastrous releases of radioactive materials from nuclear power plants.

Spent Fuel Pool:

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People living within forty miles of Fukushima power plant have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. enenews.com

Over 75 tons of highly radioactive liquid flowing out every day from a leak at a Fukushima reactor caused by saltwater corrosion. enenews.com

Kazakhstan’s return to nuclear power is to be aided by Russian cooperation. world-nuclear-news.org

South Korean President Park Geun-hye warned this week that if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, it could prompt the volatile country’s neighbors to seek their own nuclear defense. news.yahoo.com

         I post a lot links about the repercussions of the disaster there in March of 2011. One of the reasons that I post so many of these links is that I want people to understand just how profound the effects are of such a major nuclear accident on a society. I have been following the various problems and efforts to control them since the accident and I decided that today I would return to Fukushima to discuss how they are trying to deal with the leakage of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

          TEPCO has just begun dumping ground water into the Pacific Ocean that has been routed around the melted reactors cores at Fukushima. The water is not completely free from radioactive contamination but TEPCO claims that it does not represent a threat to humans or life in the ocean. Critics of the way that the repercussion of the Fukushima disaster are being handled are debating that claim.

         The Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NRA) of Japan was created after the Fukushima disaster to act as an government oversight agency for nuclear affairs. The NRA has just authorized the “construction of a network of pipes, pumps and compressors designed to freeze the ground and create a mile-long ice wall to block the path of water flowing between surrounding mountains and the Pacific Ocean.” This technique has been used to dig tunnels near water but has never been attempted on this scale.

         The ice wall will be constructed around the four reactors at Fukushima that sustained damage. The cores of reactors for Units 1,2 and 3 have melted down into the Earth. The building housing the Unit 4 reactor and spent fuel pool was heavily damaged when Unit 3 exploded. The ice wall will be almost a mile long and will penetrate one hundred feet into the ground. Holes will be drilled and pipes will be inserted into the holes. Coolant as cold as minus forty degrees Celcius or forty degrees below zero Fahrenheit will be pumped into the holes and will freeze the soil around the hole. The intention is to form a water tight rectangle around the four damaged reactors.  

       If the plan works, the water that is flowing underground from the mountains behind the Fukushima power plant will be diverted around the ice wall and flow into the ocean without being contaminated. In addition, heavily contaminated water which is inside the rectangle will be trapped and unable to flow into the ocean. Construction of the ice wall is expected to be completed by March of 2015. A new ground water drainage system is being created around the damaged reactors as a backup for the ice wall. Critics are not convinced that the ice wall will be as effective as TEPCO claims. Considering the incompetence and dishonesty displayed by TEPCO in the past, the critics may well be right.

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A former Japan official says that the Earth is in peril from Fukushima reactors if current situation continues. enenews.com

Replacements for two outgoing commissioners of the Nuclear Regulation Authority suggest the Abe administration will find it easier to gain approval for restarts of the nation’s nuclear reactors. ajw.asashi.com

The future of three Exelon nuclear power plants is in question after they failed to secure a capacity payment that would have supported their operation in a difficult power market. world-nuclear-news.org

Unnamed security violations at the Zion nuclear plant in Illinois are likely to result in a civil penalty of $17,500 for a subsidiary of EnergySolutions. nuclearstreet.com

          My past two blog posts have been about uniformed people being exposed to dangerous doses of radiation by the United States government. Today, I am going to continue on the subject of the impact of radioactive pollution on health. Autism diagnoses have been increasing recent years. There are a variety of possible environmental factors that might be contributing to the increase in autism.

         Autism is known to have a significant genetic aspect. Research has been unable to identify specific genes that increase risk for autism. The problem seems to be that people with autism have a greater number of mutations in the number of copies of some genes but there are a lot of different genes affected in different individuals. Micro-deletions or missing pieces of the genes related to synapses, mitochondria and oxytocin production appear to be involved.

         Environmental factors can directly damage DNA. Environmental factors can also alter the manner in which some genes are expressed. In addition, environmental factors could cause genetic damage and altered gene expression which indirectly weaken an individual’s ability to withstand other types of damage which might directly contribute to autism. The ability to withstand oxidative stress can contribute to autism by altering the genes that produce and regulate the production of anti-oxidants. This could increase susceptibility to damage by complex chemical pesticides and herbicides, heavy metals such as lead and mercury and radioisotopes of elements such as iodine, cesium, and strontium. One of the most powerful anti-oxidants is glutathione. Glutathione levels are found to be lower in autistic individuals.

       People with autism are more likely to have DNA mutations that either cause autism directly or weaken the system so autism can be more easily caused by other factors. Many environmental factors are being investigated including possible dangers of strong electromagnetic radiation in our wired world. The possible role of radioisotopes in autism has not gotten much attention until recently. Radioisotopes in the atmosphere, food and water have been increasing for decades as a result of nuclear testing, uranium mining, nuclear accidents, nuclear waste and the normal operation of nuclear reactors. While the possible role of ionizing radiation on the occurrence of autism has not been studied, it is well known that ionizing radiation can cause a wide variety of health problems through DNA damage. In the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, various neurological problems were connected to continued exposure of people in the area to low levels of radiation. Many birth defects have been reported including interference with nervous system development. Retardation has also been identified in children who were exposed in utero between eight weeks and twenty five weeks. Studies of autism have indicated that significant brain damage probably occured in the womb and early infancy.

         Radioisotopes can be inhaled, consumed with water or consumed with food. Tritium which is heavy water with radioactive hydrogen can penetrate human skin. In the human body, radioactive iodine is treated as stable iodine, radioactive cesium is treated as if it were potassium and radioactive strontium is treated as if it were calcium. Both radioactive cesium and strontium can pass through the blood-brain barrier and be absorbed by brain cells, causing damage.

        At present, there is no research that proves that radioisotopes are a cause of autism. However, there is enough circumstantial evidence that radioisotopes could be a contributing factor to autism to warrant dedicating research to a possible connection.

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Visiting Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed a joint statement with counterpart Shinzo Abe on Monday in Tokyo to seal Japan’s pledge to extend up to ¥600 billion in economic assistance to the country over the next four to five years. japantimes.cop.jp

The Akita governor suddenly had nosebleed during a press conference in Japan. fukushima-diary.com

Eighteen months after being shut down to avoid new taxes, the owners of Spain’s Garoña nuclear power plant have applied to government to bring the plant back into operation on a longer operating licence. world-nuclear-news.org

The future of three Exelon nuclear power plants is in question after they failed to secure a capacity payment would have that supported their operation in a difficult power market. world-nuclear-news.org

          In my last blog post on Memorial Day, I talked about how U.S. troops had been deliberately and repeatedly exposed to radiation in bomb tests and clean up in Japan after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many times they have become ill and been denied swift and adequate medical aid. Today, I am going to widen the focus beyond people serving in the U.S. military to civilians who have been deliberately exposed to radiation, often without their knowledge.

          Millions of people were exposed to radioactive fallout from more than two hundred atmospheric and underground tests that spread radioactive particles around the northern hemisphere. Thousands of people living in small towns downwind from nuclear tests in Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico experienced some of the worst exposure along with their animals, food and other farm products. One document of the Atomic Energy Commission callously referred to some of the people downwind of the Nevada Test Site as “a low use segment of the population.”

        Some “downwinders” told by the Public Health Service that hair loss and burned skin with occured because they were “neurotic.” Some women were told that they had “housewife syndrome,” whatever that is. It was the practice at the Nevada Test Site to wait for the wind to blow towards Utah before conducting atomic tests. They wanted to avoid having fallout blow towards Los Vegas or Los Angles.

         During the Cold War, doctors and scientists connected to the U.S. government spread the propaganda that a little radiation was not dangerous to health. Actually, it was already known that radioactive fallout could increase risk of cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders, immune system disease, reproductive abnormalities, sterility, birth defects, and genetic mutations which could be passed on from generation to generation. Because it can take many years for cancers and other health problems to appear, it is not possible to accurately count the number of U.S. citizens who have been harmed by radiation from fallout.

           Because of fear of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, thousands of people in the United States were the unknowing victims of more than four thousand secret and classified radiation experiments. These experiments were carried out by the Atomic Energy Commission, the Department of Defense, The Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the Public Health Service, the National Institute of Health, the Veterans Administration, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

          Between 1944 and 1974 a number of secret experiments were conducted. Eighteen Americans were injected with plutonium, most of whom were terminally ill. In the 1940s, eight hundred women were given radioactive iron to see how it affected their fetuses. Forty nine retarded and institutionalized teenagers were fed radioactive iron and calcium in their cereal between 1946 and 1954. One hundred Alaskan villagers were given radioactive iodine during the 1960s. Six newborn Black babies were injected with radioactive iodine. The testicles of over a hundred prisoners were exposed to levels of radiation high enough to cause cancer up to the 1970s. Two hundred cancer patients were exposed to high levels of radiation from cesium and cobalt up until 1974. Psychiatric patients in San Francisco were given radioactive materials. In 1995, the Department of Energy admitted that four hundred and thirty radiation experiments had been conducted on over sixteen thousand people, many of whom were not informed as to the danger.

          In Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, it says that that the government shall provide for the “general welfare.” It is obvious that those who carried out the experiments above were not concerned with the welfare of those they experimented upon. Although the radiation experiments were supposedly stopped decades ago, I can’t help but wonder what sort of secret unethical experiments are being carried out today in United States in the name of national security.

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