Fukushima fishermen are being forced to test the fish the catch for radiation. reuters.com
Recent UN report that there was no real danger to public health from the Fukushima Disaster was deceptive. nuclear-news.net
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Geiger Readings for June 2, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on June 2, 2013
Ambient office = .089 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .114 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = .091 microsieverts per hour
Bartlett pear from local grocery store = .065 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .067 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .051 microsieverts per hour
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Radiation News Roundup for June 1, 2013
Rising radioactive spills leave Fukushima fishermen floundering. uk.reuters.com
The Abe administration in Japan is going to intensify efforts to restart Japan’s nuclear power plants. ajw.asahi.com
UN experts claim that the Fukushima nuclear disaster poses no immediate health risks. timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Smoldering landfill near St. Louise could threaten buried nuclear waste. abcnews.go.com
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Geiger Reading for June 1, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on June 1, 2013
Ambient office = .131 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .100 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = .077 microsieverts per hour
Red Onion from local grocery store = .093 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .076 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .058 microsieverts per hour
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Radioactive Waste 30 – Radiation Danger in Seattle’s Magnuson Park – Part 2
Radiation Danger in Magnuson Park in Seattle – Part 2 of 4
This is the second in a series of blog posts about the radioactive contamination left over from World War II at Magnuson Park in Seattle. On May 29th there was an “Open House” at the Mountaineers building in Magnuson Park where the Navy, the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Department of Ecology presented the history of the situation and plans for dealing with it at placard stations around the room. For details on the history of the contaminations, see Part 1.
There are national standards for cleaning up hazardous waste contamination. There are more stringent state standards in Washington State. There are special standards for cleaning up what have been designated as Superfund sites by the Environmental Protection agency. The Washington State Department of Health has its own standards for industrial work spaces and recreational spaces. These allow more radiation than the other standards. Each of these different designations carry with them a process that requires documentation of the problems at the site in question, exploration of alternative for clean up and a set of public meetings so that the affected citizens can have input to the planning process.
After four years of sitting on the contamination at Magnuson Park and making no public announcement because the Navy felt that there was no danger to the public because public access to the contaminated areas had been prevented, the situation finally reached public awareness last March. The Navy, which is responsible for cleaning up the contamination decided that suddenly the situation was so critical that they declared that a “Time Critical Cleanup Response” was necessary. This allowed them to circumvent any of the usual processes associated with the different site designations including their environmental impact statements, exploration of alternatives for clean up, public notification and input, and final discussion and decisions on the best way to proceed with the cleanup.
It appears that the Navy chose to work closely with the Washington State Department of Health because they had the lowest standards for allowable radiation to remain after a cleanup. The Washington State Department of Ecology was brought into the conversation very late in the game in May. Although they are the senior agency in charge of this cleanup, a representative from Ecology explained that they are stretched pretty thin and that they sometimes let “independent cleanups” go forward while they concentrate on other projects. Apparently, the cleanup of Magnuson Park was one of those “independent cleanups” that was being left to the Navy.
During conversations with the experts scattered around the room and question and answer sessions conducted by Washington State Representative Gerry Pollet, what became clear to me was that the situation was anything but clear. The experts didn’t seem to know things they should have know, the explanations for why the situation was now time critical were poor to non-existent, the plan for removal might be a good plan but the “expert” from the Washington State Department of Ecology didn’t really know much about the details. People were frustrated by the format. They wanted a public meeting with a panel of experts fielding questions from the audience. The reasons given for not holding such meetings were again poor or non-existent. The Navy may have avoided the usual processes but what passed for their new process last night was a garbled and confusing mess.
Magnuson Park and Lake Washington in Seattle:
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Geiger Readings for May 31, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 31, 2013
Ambient office = .099 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .079 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = .078 microsieverts per hour
Banana from local grocery store = .083 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .095 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .089 microsieverts per hour
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Radioactive Waste 29 – Radiation Danger in Seattle’s Magnuson Park – Part 1
Radiation Danger in Seattle’s Magnuson Park, Part 1 of 4
I attended a Navy “Open House” at the Mountaineers building in Magnuson Park in northeast Seattle last night. It was a very interesting and somewhat contentious evening. The gathering was called so that the Navy, the Washington State Department of Health, the Washington State Department of Ecology and other officials could present the story of the radioactive contamination of Magnuson Park and the plan that the Navy had for cleaning it up.
To start at the beginning of this story, it is necessary to go back to World War II when Magnuson Park was a U.S. Naval Air Base. Planes were repaired at the base. Part of the repair process was to refurbish the dials of instruments that were painted with radium paint so they could be seen in the dark. The old radium paint had to be stripped off and disposed of so the new radium paint could be applied. There were dedicated rooms in a couple of the base buildings for dealing with the preparation, application and disposal of radium paint. The old paint was flushed out of the buildings and into the drain system by piping. Radium is highly radioactive and highly toxic.
After the war, the base was repurposed several times and ultimately closed in the 1990s. There was a cleanup of toxic waste in the 1970s but apparently the radium pollution was not part of the cleanup. The base was decommissioned and sections were turned over to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration as well as the City of Seattle. In 2009, the Navy did an assessment of old base buildings that were going to Seattle with respect to any lingering contamination and concluded that there was nothing to be concerned about.
When the city of Seattle decided to renovate some of the base buildings in 2010, they went over old plans for the buildings and found that some of the rooms were labeled as radium painting and handling areas. When the Navy was called back in to test for radiation, they found hot spots of gamma radiation in several sections of the old buildings and nearby grounds. Gamma radiation can penetrate walls, floors and soil. In addition of the presence of radium, cesium-137 and strontium-90 were found. These are both serious health hazards. The contaminated areas were promptly boarded up and removed from public use. Fences were put up around areas where the soil outside of the buildings showed signs of contamination. However, there was no attempt to make the situation known to the public at large beyond some signage on the walls of the contaminated rooms and on the fences around the contaminated soil.
The situation at Magnuson Park began to seep into public awareness in March of 2013, nearly four years after officials of various agencies knew about the problem. But the problem was not officially presented to the public before the meeting last night. What the public found was that the various agencies had decided that the Navy had a good plan to deal with the problem as quickly as possible under a designation known as “Time Critical Removal Action.” Unfortunately, what the public also found out at the Open House was that this process circumvents the normal review and clean up of hazard waste sites with little opportunity for the community to express their concerns and recommendations.
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Radiation News Roundup for May 30, 2013
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Geiger Readings for May 30, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 30, 2013
Ambient office = .066 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .101 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = .099 microsieverts per hour
Vine ripened tomato from local grocery store = .074 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .138 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .092 microsieverts per hour
