Ambient office = .079 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .081 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .087 microsieverts per hour

White peach from local grocery store =  .183 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .079 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .065 microsieverts per hour

              Nuclear energy has always been closely connected to national and international politics. The promise of nuclear power was sold in the United States and the Soviet Union because their governments wanted to spend more money on nuclear weapons development than their people were willing to support. Promising cheap energy from nuclear reactors was one way of pouring ever more money into nuclear research and development. With the end of the Cold War and the nuclear disarmament treaties, a lot of that impetus was lost.  Regional and global international organizations were created to police the use of nuclear reactors to generate electricity. The world is currently focused on preventing Iran from creating nuclear weapons and restraining North Korea from further development and testing of nuclear weapons.

          In the early 2000s, there was talk of a “nuclear renaissance.” Nuclear power was put forward as a solution to the global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Many old reactor reaching the end of their original licensed lifespans of forty years were relicensed for another twenty years. Rosy predictions were made about how inexpensive and reliable the new generation of reactors would be.

           Then reality set in with the Fukushima disaster in Japan. The world recoiled in shock and horror as melting nuclear reactor cores threatened the whole world with fallout. Even two years later, radioactive water continues to flow into the Pacific Ocean threaten the food chain. All of Japans nuclear reactors were shut down and all but a few are still offline. Germany decided to end the use of nuclear power. Other countries took a hard look at nuclear power and found that new construction was often far over budget and behind schedule. Old reactors that failed to compete with cheap natural gas were shut down. Other old reactors were simply too expensive to repair and upgrade and they were shut down.

           But the nuclear industry is not going to go away quietly. The new Japanese Prime Minister Abe is touring the world to sell Japan’s nuclear technology. Russia is very active in selling its nuclear technology to other countries. They have even developed a nuclear reactor barge that can be towed anywhere. In the United States, lobbying groups are pressuring the President to strongly advocate for domestic nuclear power. France’s national nuclear company is also seeking contracts in other countries. Although Germany has vetoed nuclear subsidies in the European Union, the Dutch and other members are finding ways around the prohibition to funnel money to the nuclear industry. I recently received an invitation to a U.S. nuclear contractor conference where they were going to discuss ways to restore confidence in the industry by bringing projects in on time and in budget.

            Unfortunately for the nuclear industry, they are not as powerful as the fossil fuel or bank lobby. Also, Fukushima was a disaster for their reputation. And, finally, there is no longer the close link between the domestic nuclear industry and the defense industry that existed during the Cold War. I am afraid that their nuclear renaissance is going to more of a nuclear bust.

Fukushima impervious underground wall construction is being delayed due to the shortage of Fukushima workers. fukushima-diary.com

Vermont Yankee nuclear plant officials said Thursday two recent high radiation readings in the reactor building at the Vernon plant were false alarms. boston.com

Nuclear manufacturing giant Areva says it made zero profit in the first half of the year, though says sales are on the rise as the industry slowly recovers from Japan’s 2011 nuclear accident. boston.com

Private health investors and practitioners have said that the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA) is frustrating and hampering the import of equipment for medical imaging services in the country with its ‘exorbitant charges’. weeklytrust.com.ng

Ambient office = .123 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .134 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .126 microsieverts per hour

Strawberry from local grocery store =  .157 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .065 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .060 microsieverts per hour

           I have posted many blog entries and links that dealt with the ongoing situation at the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. There has been some progress in removing some debris and analyzing what has happened and what is happening. There are still many important unanswered questions. Critics continue to accuse TEPCO of not being forthcoming with complete information about what is occurring at Fukushima.

           During the disaster in March of 2011, the cores of the Unit One, Two and Three reactors melted down into the Earth under the nuclear power plant. It is unclear exactly where they are and what state they are in but there have been emissions of steam recently that indicates that something underground is still very hot. Large volumes of water are still being pumped underground in the vicinity of the three melted cores to cool them. There is some evidence that the contaminated cooling water is draining into the Pacific Ocean. Various schemes have been proposed to prevent this such as building an underground wall between the reactor cores and the ocean.

           Radioactive water known as tritium has been detected coming from the area of the cores. Tritium emits beta particles (energetic electrons) that can pose a danger to the health of any living creature that consumes water containing tritium. Beta particles can damage DNA and cause cancer. The tritium levels in the ocean off Fukushima have recently been rising. With a half-life of 12 years, the tritium from Fukushima can be carried across the ocean to North America. Evaporating into the atmosphere and raining down on the West Coast of the United States, the tritium could enter the food supply and threaten public health.

           Even more problematic is the possibility of reactions that could generate sufficient hydrogen gas to trigger an explosion more powerful than the one that demolished the Unit Three reactor building and severely damaged the Unit Four reactor building. The Unit Four building has been reinforced but a huge explosion nearby might empty the water in the spent fuel pool on the fourth floor of the Unit Four building and ignite the spent fuel rods in the pool. This would inject a huge amount of radioactive materials into the atmosphere which would be carried around the entire northern hemisphere by air currents.

            While it is still not clear what will be required to actually clean up and decommission the Fukushima site, estimates run to decades and hundreds of billions of dollars. There is a furious debate going on right now in Japan with respect to restarting their fifty four reactors. The new Japanese Prime Minister is traveling around the planet trying to promote the sale of Japanese nuclear reactor technology. Viet Nam and Japan are currently discussing the construction of a new reactor by the Japanese in Viet Nam. I think that it may be a trifle premature for Japan to be exporting their nuclear technology until they clean up Fukushima.

 

Crowd-sourced data provides a high-res view of radiation levels in Japan. technologyreview.com

Entirely possible leaking nuclear material from Fukushima is going to U.S. and Canada.  enenews.com

A new nuclear cooperation agreement struck between South Africa and the European Union will support joint nuclear research and could help open access to South Africa’s uranium resources. world-nuclear-news.org

An influential board in one of two parts of the country expressing tentative interest in storing spent reactor fuel has voted not to endorse the Savannah River Site as an interim storage location for civilian nuclear waste. nuclearstreet.com

Ambient office = .118 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .081 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .098 microsieverts per hour

Lemon from local grocery store =  .16microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .097 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .075 microsieverts per hour

Second Meeting at Magnuson Park about Radioactive Contamination on July 18, 2013 – Part 3 of 3

        We had been told that a questions and answer session would continue after the public comment period but after the public comment period, the representatives from the Navy, the State Department of Health and one from the State Department of Ecology had vanished. One brave representative from Ecology stayed on to face the remaining citizens. One question that I had raised at the previous meeting in May had remained unanswered. We had been told at that time that the State Department of Ecology was the senior agency and that it had ultimate authority. However, when I asked the rep from Ecology at that meeting whether or not the Department of Ecology could stop the Navy from going ahead with its finalized plant in July, he said “I don’t know.”

        At last night’s meeting, the question of ultimate authority came up again. The Navy was claiming that it had the right to drive the process as it saw fit because the contamination was caused by the Navy back in the 1940s. The Department of Health also said that they had ultimate authority for cleaning up radioactive contamination that threatened the citizens of the state. Representative Pollet said that the State Department of Ecology had ultimate authority. He said that the Navy’s claim to authority was invalid because the Park was not a Federal Superfund Site and it was no longer owned by the Federal Government. When directly confronted, the representative from Ecology said that he did not think that the State Department he worked for could stop the Navy from proceeding. Earlier he had said that following the public input at the meeting, Ecology might approve the Navy’s plan “as is” or request changes based on public input. Representative Pollet pointed out that that changing the work plan was going to be difficult if the Navy proceeded to start work before the public comment period had even ended.

          I demanded an answer to the question of who exactly was in charge at Magnuson Park. I was surprised that a nine million dollar plan of action had been drawn up and was scheduled to proceed when the question of who was in charge and what official process should be followed had not been answered. Fortunately, State Representative Pollet had called a meeting of representatives of all Federal and State agencies involved for this coming Monday to try to answer this question of jurisdiction and process once and for all. Without the work of Rep. Pollet, the Navy would have steamrolled their hasty process through and the public would have had no say in the cleanup of Magnuson Park.

         From my studies of nuclear contamination worldwide, I have found repeated instances of governing and regulatory agencies from the international level down to the local community level as well as major private corporations failing to provide adequate timely information to the public about radiation dangers. There are also many instances of sloppy and incompetent cleanup efforts that were supposed to take care of contamination problems. Given the confusion, lack of information and rush to carry out an inadequate cleanup of the radioactive contamination in Magnuson Park, the public is entitled to be skeptical of the Navy’s plan to clean up the mess they left in spite of official reassurances.

Links:

King 5 report on May 29 meeting at Magnuson Park

King 5 report on July 18 meeting at Magnuson Park

Washington State Department of Health web page on Magnuson Park cleanup

Department of Navy web page on Magnuson Park cleanup

Magnuson Park Arial Photo:

Japan has a deal with Vietnam that if Vietnam buys a new nuclear reactor from Japan, Japan will store the radioactive waste that it generates. nuclear-news.net

Japan says it is taking steps to prevent contaminated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant leaking into the sea. bbc.co.uk

PPL Corp. took one of its reactors at Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna nuclear plant offline for valve repairs Sunday. nuclearstreet.com

The Dutch government gave its approval in January 2012 for the construction of a replacement for the ageing High Flux Reactor at Petten. world-nuclear-news.org

Ambient office = .078 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .126 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .107 microsieverts per hour

Lime from local grocery store =  .124 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .113 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .103 microsieverts per hour