Experts agree many species of wildlife and fisheries are endangered globally due to large release of radioactivity into ocean at Fukushima. enenews.com
Even a ‘small’ nuclear war would destroy the world. denver.cbslocal.com
Blog
-
Geiger Readings for March 28, 2014
Ambient office = 101 nanosieverts per hourAmbient outside = 126 nanosieverts per hourSoil exposed to rain water = 92 nanosieverts per hourBartlett pear from Central Market = 121 nanosieverts per hourTap water = 69 nanosieverts per hourFiltered water = 57 nanosieverts per hour -
Radioactive Waste 68 – Washington State Takes Legal Actions Against the U.S. Dept. of Energy Over Leaking Tank at Hanford
Recently I blogged about the conflict between the State of Washington and the Federal Government with respect to the cleanup of the horribly polluted Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Decades of development and manufacture of U.S. nuclear weapons at the Reservation have left behind a variety of radioactive contamination.
There are one hundred and forty seven buried single-wall tanks at Hanford built between 1943 and 1964 to contain mainly liquid waste. Unfortunately, there was far too much such waste for the tanks and some was poured directly into unlined trenches to soak into the ground. Sixty seven of these tanks have leaked some of their contents into the ground. Twenty eight double-walled tanks were constructed to take waste from single-walled tanks with the promise that they would not leak.
One such double-walled tank known AY-102 has been leaking for two years and there are six more of similar design which might leak in the future. Washington State law requires that the operators of Hanford to pump out any leaking tank within twenty four hours of the discovery of the leak. The State has been considering legal action against the Federal Government over the failure to empty the leaking tank.
The first legal action occurred on Friday, March 21st. The Washington State Department of Ecology demanded that the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) provide a faster time table for emptying AY-102. The U.S. DoE had said that it might take more than two years to get the tank pumped out. Washington State is now demanding that the U.S. DoE begin pumping out the waste in AV-102 by September 1st, 2014. The removal of solid waste in the tank must commence by December 1st, 2015. The tank must be completely empty by December 1st, 2016. The U.S. DoE has responded with a complaint that the State action was announced with no prior notification of the U.S. They say that there may be problems pumping out the tank in the near future and that it does not currently pose a threat to the public. The second legal action happened this week as Washington State informed the U.S. Justice Department that the U.S. DoE is in violation of a 2010 consent decree that applies to the cleanup of Hanford.
A few days prior to the first legal action, the Governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee met with the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Ernest Moniz to consider the Federal Government’s plan for resuming work on the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant (WTP). This thirteen billion dollar project in intended to mix some of the most dangerous radioactive waste with sand and heat the mixture to create glass logs that can be safely placed in long-term permanent storage whenever a national nuclear waste repository is created. After years of work and billions of dollars, construction of the WTP was halted because of design concerns. The complexity of the mixtures held in the tanks was found to cause potentially catastrophic vibrations in the plant piping under the original design. There was also the danger of generation of hydrogen gas which could have exploded and released radioactive materials into the atmosphere threatening the nearby Tri-Cities. The U.S. DoE had promised to have the WTP up and running by 2022 but has said that it cannot meet that deadline.
Perhaps the Federal Government can divert funds recently requested for work on the U.S. nuclear arsenal to cleaning up the mess they left from previous nuclear weapons manufacture at Hanford.
Design of AY-102 double-walled tank at Hanford:
-
Radiation News Roundup March 27, 2014
Life as a Fukushima nuclear worker is uncovered in a comic. telegraph.co.uk
Work on removing fuel assemblies for the Fukushima spent fuel pool is suspended after crane trouble. enenews.com
The clean-up of spilled slurry material at the Australian Ranger uranium mine has been completed. world-nuclear-news.org
Nine Air Force commanders have been fired after nuclear missile cheating scandal. nydailynews.com
-
Radiation News Roundup March 27, 2014
Life as a Fukushima nuclear worker is uncovered in a comic. telegraph.co.uk
Work on removing fuel assemblies for the Fukushima spent fuel pool is suspended after crane trouble. enenews.com
The clean-up of spilled slurry material at the Australian Ranger uranium mine has been completed. world-nuclear-news.org
Nine Air Force commanders have been fired after nuclear missile cheating scandal. nydailynews.com
-
Geiger Readings for March 27, 2014
Ambient office = 102 nanosieverts per hourAmbient outside = 83 nanosieverts per hourSoil exposed to rain water = 97 nanosieverts per hourMango from Central Market = 111 nanosieverts per hourTap water = 87 nanosieverts per hourFiltered water = 82 nanosieverts per hour -
Nuclear Weapons 69 – Recent International Meeting on Disarmament at the Hague
Earlier this week, leaders from nuclear nations met for the Nuclear Security Summit at the World Forum in the Hague, Netherlands to discuss ways to reduce the global threat of nuclear terrorism. Three such meetings have been held since 2010 organized by the United States. At the first meeting in 2010, a deadline of 2013 was set “to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years.” Although this has not been completely accomplished, since 2010 ten countries have gotten rid of their stockpiles of plutonium and highly enriched uranium including Chile, Serbia, Turkey, Austria, Mexico, Sweden, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Vietnam. It was announced at this week’s meeting that a new deadline of 2016 would be set to secure vulnerable nuclear materials.
The Nuclear Threat Initiative think-tank in Washington, D.C. published a report before the meeting that said almost two thousand metric tons of nuclear material that could be used to create nuclear weapons still exists around the world. Some of this nuclear material has very poor secured according to the report.
This week’s meeting will be dedicated “to improving security for global stocks of other radiological isotopes including cobalt 60 and caesium 137 which are used in industry, research and medicine but which could be used in a “dirty bomb” to irradiate a large urban area.” The International Atomic Energy Agency reported last year that, on average, there may be as many as one hundred thefts of small amounts nuclear materials every year. The small quantities stolen to date do not pose a serious threat.
At this week’s meeting, Japan pledged to ship six hundred sixty pounds of weapons-grade plutonium and four hundred forty pounds of highly enriched uranium to the United States. The U.S. had requested that Japan ship their weapons-grade radioactive materials to the U.S. for disposal. China has been complaining lately that it feared the Japanese were going to use the materials to create nuclear weapons. Belgium and Italy have also signed agreements with the U.S. to remove their stockpiles of surplus fissile materials that might be a threat if they fall into the wrong hands.
The Ploughshares Fund is an organization dedicated to nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation. The head of the Fund applauds the cooperative framework established by the series of meetings but says that much remains to be done. He points out that the current efforts are not sufficiently urgent to match the threat. There are terrorist groups in the world who are actively seeking nuclear materials to create weapons. The big question is whether or not all nuclear materials will be secured before terrorists managed to get their hands of sufficient nuclear materials to construct a weapon. The Ploughshare Fund sees the securing of nuclear materials as a race against time.
I applaud the work of the Ploughshare Fund and the meetings that are being held but I am afraid that they may not be enough. Russia is working on breeder reactors to generate plutonium which they intend to use for nuclear fuel domestically and for export. This will significantly increase the amount of weapons-grade material that will have to be protected in storage and during transportation. In addition, reactors are being built in third world countries that have corrupt governments which are unlikely to properly regulate and secure nuclear materials. Greater global efforts to increase nuclear security will be necessary to protect our civilization.
World Forum in the Hague, Netherlands:
-
Geiger Readings for March 26, 2014
Ambient office = 105 nanosieverts per hourAmbient outside = 75 nanosieverts per hourSoil exposed to rain water = 66 nanosieverts per hourBanana from QFC = 99 nanosieverts per hourTap water = 72 nanosieverts per hourFiltered water = 55 nanosieverts per hour
