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

Second Meeting at Magnuson Park about Radioactive Contamination on July 18, 2013 – Part 2 of 3

         The representatives from the Navy and the State Agencies expressed great desire to hear public feedback and reassure public concerns. Although they admitted that there were still some unanswered questions, such as where the cesium and strontium isotopes came from that were found at Magnuson Park, they insisted that all precautions had been taken and would be taken to protect the public and the Navy cleanup plan would result in a safe environment for future users of Magnuson Park.

          The answers they gave to public questions were soothing but often unconvincing. Of special concern was why the project needed to be rushed through so quickly. The problem was discovered by the Navy and the Seattle Parks Department three years ago but no public announcement was made until a few months ago. After the discovery, buildings were boarded up and signs posted that simply said “Controlled Area” not even “danger” or “keep out.”

          One reason given for the need for haste was that a contaminated shed was deteriorating and would be dangerous to work in if left much longer. Did no one notice that the shed was deteriorating in the past three years? I noticed that their work plan outline had work in the shed way down the list after several other things had been attended to. It did not look like they actually gave it much priority. They also said that people were breaking into a boarded up building and stealing copper so they had to move fast to prevent more break-ins. With inexpensive web cameras and motion detectors as well as cheap security guards, I find it implausible that they could not guard two small boarded up areas twenty four/seven if there actually was a serious need.

          The questions and answers directed to the representatives were cut short to give people time to make public comments. For some unknown reason, we were told that only the public comment period would be “on the official record” of the meeting and not the question and answer period. I find it interesting that the officials in attendance would not have their answers to public questions on the record.

           I started off the public comment period by saying that I did not trust Federal or State honesty or competence with respect to the cleanup and removal of radioactive contamination based on the things that I have found in my study of nuclear issues for the past year. The other people making public comments raised some very interesting and germane issues.

• One man who was a retired doctor said that there were a lot of pollutants in Lake Washington and he was concerned that we were only discussing the danger of cancers being caused by the radioactive contamination at the Park. He was worried about the health dangers of synergistic combinations of radioactivity and other pollutants.
• Another man offered the theory that the cesium and strontium pollution found at the Park may have come from planes that flew through clouds of radioactive dust and smoke in Pacific nuclear tests in the early 1950s.
• A woman had reviewed the documentation made public by the Navy and said that she found a lot of important information including raw data missing from the documentation. 

 

In general, the public comments were relevant, insightful, and skeptical. As I pointed out in my closing remarks, if the Navy proceeded with planned work in the near future, that would prove that the Navy and State agencies were not really interested in public input and had only held the meeting to try to reassure residents and sooth public concern.

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

 

A spike in deadly birth defects around the Hanford Nuclear Reservation could be a complete coincidence, officials claim. enenews.com

As it announced a steep year-over-year drop in expected earnings for the second quarter, Entergy also alluded to a new cost-cutting initiative expected to result in layoffs. nuclearstreet.com

On the same day that a train derailment killed six people near Paris, France, an identical track problem caused the crash of another train on a line owned by Areva to move nuclear material. nuclearstreet.com

Nuclear reactors that light New York City and Chicago with carbon-free electricity face possible extinction before they can reap the benefits of President Barack Obama’s proposed climate rules. bloomberg.com

Ambient office = .079 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .065 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .049 microsieverts per hour

Banana from local grocery store =  .157 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .090 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .076 microsieverts per hour

Second Meeting at Magnuson Park about Radioactive Contamination on July 18, 2013 – Part 1 of 3

           Last night, I attended the public meeting at the Mountaineer’s Headquarters at Magnuson Park in Seattle called by the Navy and the State of Washington Departments of Health and Ecology to discuss the Navy’s plans for cleaning up radium left over from World War II in a couple of buildings and in the soil outside of the buildings. Having been disappointed by the previous meeting back at the end of May, I was hoping for a better dialog between the Federal and State Representatives. The turnout was low and there were a lot of empty seats. This might have been because the meeting was not well publicized having been announced only one week before it was to be held.

           There were two representatives from the Navy, one from the Washington State Department of Ecology and two from the Washington State Department of Health. Also in attendance was State Representative Gerry Pollet who represents the 46^th Legislative District where Magnuson Park is located. Rep. Pollet is also the Executive Director of Heart of America Northwest, a public watchdog group that has been working on alerting the public and pressuring government agencies about the horrible radioactive contamination at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State and other contaminated sites in the region. He is a lawyer who is well versed in environmental law in general and laws pertaining to the storage and cleanup of radioactive contamination.

           Unlike the original meeting which was held only for the purpose of a belated notification of the public of the radiation contamination at Magnuson Park and the Navy’s plan for a rushed cleanup that did not follow the usual process of public comment and environmental impact statements, last night’s meeting was intended to reassure the public that the Navy and State agencies were open to public input about the clean up. There was a brief presentation of the situations and the Navy plan followed by an hour of question and answer. Following that, there was about an hour of public testimony that was “on the record”, being recorded by camera and a court reporter. It was interesting to note that the schedule was crowded although the room was less than half full. It was obvious that had all the seats been filled there was no way that everyone who had questions or comments for the record could have been heard.

           The first presentation was by Rep. Pollet who pointed out that the current Navy plan was inadequate to protect the health of the citizens who used the park. The level of radiation the Navy was planning on leaving behind, 15 milliRems, was higher than allowed by either Federal or State laws that applied to such cleanup and would lead to higher rates of cancer among frequent users of the park. He said that not all possible contamination sites had been adequately explored including the sailing dock and beach where one of the contaminated sewer pipes flowed into Lake Washington. He also said that the Navy had not provided documents required by normal cleanups like a Feasibility study, Environmental Impact Statement or Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis. He raised the issue of which protocol was being followed, the Federal process called CERLA or the State process called MOTA.

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

1975 Magnuson Park Master Plan: