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:

United States Department of Energy announces 2013 nuclear energy scholarships. nuclearstreet.com

Since Hassan Rouhani’s victory in the presidential election in June, many Iranians are hoping Mr. Rouhani’s moderate posture on the campaign trail will help ease international sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program. bbc.co.uk

Media surveys ahead of Sunday’s upper house election show that Japanese voters are placing the economy above all other issues, including the future of nuclear energy use.  blogs.wsj.com

For the ninth time in three years, the Tennessee Valley Authority is being cited by federal regulators for violating safety standards at one of its reactors. timesfreepress.com

Ambient office = .089 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .095 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .100 microsieverts per hour

Vine ripened tomatoes from local grocery store =  .095 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .121 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .105 microsieverts per hour

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday that 1,973 workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have estimated thyroid radiation doses exceeding 100 millisieverts and are therefore at higher risk of getting thyroid cancer. japantimes.co.jp

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week conducted an International Radiological Assistance Program Training for Emergency Response (I-RAPTER) training in Almaty, Kazakhstan. yournuclearnews.com

Southern California Edison has just filed a so-called Notice of Dispute on its former vendor, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries over the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear power plant. forbes.com

The Vietnamese government needs to set up a national nuclear regulatory agency right away, to ensure the country’s nuclear project gets underway as well as keeping in line with international rules and guidance that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands. asianewsnet.net

Latitude 47.704656 Longitude -122.318745

Ambient office = .089 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .095 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .100 microsieverts per hour

Romaine lettuce from local grocery store =  .095 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .121 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .105 microsieverts per hour

The failings of the Fukushima nuclear reactor were so substantial that three General Electric scientists who helped design the now imperiled reactors resigned from the company. newsfeed.time.com

Nearly 80 percent of the 1,200 Japanese citizens questioned believe that a crisis like the one at the Fukushima nuclear power plant will possibly occur again if Japan chooses to restart currently idled reactors. japantimes.co.jp

 The operator of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant insisted Thursday there was no sign of spiking radiation at the crippled facility, after steam was found in a reactor building. channelnewsasia.com

With billions of dollars wasted and one of the largest power plants in California shut down permanently, Southern California Edison has initiated its legal fight with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries over faulty steam generators at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. nuclearstreet.com

Ambient office = .147 microsieverts per hour

Ambient outside = .143 microsieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = .124 microsieverts per hour

Carrot from local grocery store =  .097 microsieverts per hour

Tap water = .083 microsieverts per hour

Filtered water = .079 microsieverts per hour

              In Mid-June I posted four blogs about a meeting at the Mountaineer’s Headquarters building at Magnuson Park in Seattle, Washington. The meeting was called by the U.S. Navy, the Washington State Department of Ecology and the Washington State Department of Health. The purpose of the meeting was a presentation of information about radium contamination in a couple of old Naval buildings and soil around drainage systems left over from World War II aircraft repair activities.

            The City of Seattle found reference to radium in blueprints they were reviewing in 2010 in preparation for remodeling of the old buildings. At that time, the Navy boarded up the contaminated sections of the buildings and put up fences around the contaminated soil. Small signs of warning people to keep away were posted but there was no public announcement.

             Last winter, when the facts began to become public, the Navy partnered with the Washington State Department of Health to develop a plan for cleaning up the site. The Washington State Department of Ecology which has jurisdiction over the environment in the park was brought in late in the planning process in June. The State Department of Health has standards which allow for a higher level of residual radiation than the State Department of Ecology or the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.

            The Navy and the Washington State agencies called the meeting to present their picture of the current situation and to explain their plan to clean up the radioactive contamination. They had a series of stations with posters and they said that they would accept written comments but were not going to accept verbal comments. Their plan called for public comment to end at the end of June and work on the cleanup to begin on July 15^th. This schedule implied that they are not really interested in incorporating public input into their cleanup plan.

              State Representative Gerry Pollet forcefully argued with the Navy and State presenters, saying that the people needed to have more input into the process. The Navy was utilizing a special fast track procedure that they said was necessary. This appears to be at odds with the fact that they claimed that at no time was there any danger to the public. And now they wanted to rush through a cleanup without allowing public meetings or an environmental impact statement.

           After the heated argument at the meeting, the Navy and the State understood that the people of Seattle’s Magnuson Park neighborhood were not about to passively accept the plan to rush through a questionable cleanup of radioactivity in their neighborhood. Public pressure forced the Navy and the State to extend the public comment period to the end of July and to hold additional meetings for public input. Unfortunately, the Navy announced that they were going ahead with “preliminary” work on July 8^th.

         The Navy says that they want the public to be confident that everything necessary is being done to protect the public and that all relevant documents are available on their website and at Northeast Branch of the Seattle Regional Library at 6801 35th Ave NE.  However, Representative Pollet points out that the Navy has not provided the usual reports that should accompany such environmental clean projects.

          There will be another public meeting tonight at the Mountaineer’s Headquarters at Magnuson Park tonight from 6 to 10 PM. It will be interesting to see if the Navy and the State of Washington have indeed decided to incorporate public feedback into the cleanup process at Magnuson Park or whether tonight’s meeting is simply for show. It is an open question of whether the Navy is more concerned about insuring the safety of the citizens that use Magnuson Park or forcing the acceptance of a quick fix to the public embarrassment of a contaminated site that they were responsible for.

Mountaineer’s Headquarters at Magnuson Park: