Blog
-
Geiger Readings for May 15, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 15, 2013
Ambient office = .116 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .080 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = .084 microsieverts per hour
Celery from Costco = .105 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .076 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .067 microsieverts per hour
-
Radioactive Waste 28 – Bridgeton and West Lake Landfills
I briefly mentioned radioactive materials and landfills recently in the context of disposal of drill tailings from fracking. There are standards for what levels of radioactivity are acceptable in landfills today. However, there are exemptions for wastes generated by nuclear weapons related operations.
The West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri near St. Louis contains over eight thousand tons of nuclear waste. This old waste is left over from Mallinckrodt Chemical Company’s uranium processing operation during the Cold war. The West Lake Landfill is designated as an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. The old landfill has none of the modern safety features such as a liner to prevent leakage into the groundwater or a cap to prevent gases from escaping. It is sitting a few miles upstream from a reservoir that supplies drinking water to St. Louis.
The Bridgeport Landfill is located within a thousand feet of the buried nuclear waste. Normally, this should not be a reason for increased concern but, unfortunately, there is a fire burning underground in the landfill. Temperatures underground are way above normal levels. The company that manages the landfill, Republic Services, says that the horrible odor from the burning landfill that is polluting the air miles away, is not a safety hazard. On the other hand, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has detected dangerous levels of benzene and hydrogen sulfide in the air around the landfill. Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources sent out a notice that people with chronic respiratory disease should not remain near the landfill. Republic Services has been sued by the state attorney general for environmental violations.
Some concrete pipes that are allowing the odor to escape are being removed. Holes are being drilled to cope with the situation. Unfortunately, the excavation and drilling will increase the intensity of the current smells for a short time. A one mile area has been designated for evacuating people but some groups are calling for a five mile evacuation zone.
The big worry is that the underground fire at the Bridgeton Landfill will spread to the nuclear waste in the West Lake Landfill. No one knows what will happen if the fire reaches the waste but in a worst case scenario, it would be something like an accidental “dirty bomb.” There would be no nuclear or conventional chemical explosion, but there would be a release of radioactive particles into the atmosphere over Bridgeton area. The particles could reach as far as ten miles away from the West Lake Landfill. This would require the evacuation of all residents in that area and the halt of all economic activity. It would become an abandoned zone. Radioactive particles could be carried further by surface water and threaten a wider area.
Republic Services says that there is no real danger of the fire reaching the nuclear waste. However, they have already been caught lying about the fumes from the f ire and are being sued for environmental violations by the state. The people in the area are not convinced that they can accept the assurances of Republic Services that they are not at risk from the nuclear waste. Activists are calling for a greater governmental involvement in protecting the public in the area from these two problematic landfills.
West Lake Landfill, Bridgeton, Missouri:
-
Geiger Readings for May 14, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 14, 2013
Ambient office = .056 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .088 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = .114 microsieverts per hour
Dried Apricot from Costco = .095 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .067 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .043 microsieverts per hour
-
Radioactive Waste 27 – Hanford Tank AY-102
I have written several blogs about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Aside from the fact that I live in Western Washington, the main reason I have focused on Hanford is that it contains a huge quantity of toxic radioactive waste that has proven very difficult to clean up. Leakages at Hanford threaten the Columbia River and the communities that depend on it for drinking water, industry and irrigation.
For the past year, there have been serious problems with a double walled tank at Hanford containing high levels of strontium-90. The tank has the designation AY-102. The double walled tanks are replacing the older single walled tanks because of all the leaks from the single walled tanks. Aside from the specific issues with AY-102, the idea that the double walled tanks are also leaking is very serious. KING TV in Seattle, Washington has been doing a lot of investigation of the AY-102 tank and a number of new details have come to light.
When the alarm for that tank went off on October 9, 2011, the shift manager followed protocol and tried to find the specific Alarm Response Procedure (ARP) that would tell him what to do. I think that it is very obvious that in a complex system such as a nuclear power plant control room, having written procedures for dealing with all foreseeable problems is critical. The shift manager was unable to find the ARP for that alarm.
The next day, the company that manages the underground tanks, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), sent an experienced instrumentation technician out to double check the instrumentation on the AY-102 tank. He found that everything was working correctly and that it was not a false alarm. However, he also could find no ARP that would tell him what to do in the event of the alarm sounding.
WRPS decided that it was rainwater leaking in between the walls of the tank that trigger the alarm. They said that there was no evidence of increase radioactivity around the tank. After more than a year and additional indicators of problems with tank AY-10, WRPS finally admitted that the inner wall of the tank had cracked and radioactive sludge had leaked out.
WRPS insisted for months that a detailed response plan for that particular alarm did exist when the first alarm sounded in October of 2011. Despite exhaustive research, KING TV could not find any trace of such a plan. When KING TV told WRPS about a report it was going to air, a WRPS representative “clarified” the WRPS position with respect to the missing response plan. WRPS said that there were sections of general leak response procedures that covered the alarm for AY-102 but further investigation showed that the two sections of response procedures mentioned by WRPS were written and inserted into the leak response manuals eight months after the alarm first sounded. And, despite the claims that the new sections covered the problem in AY-102, detailed procedures of how to respond to a leak in the AY-102 inner wall still don’t exist.
AY-102 contains more strontium-90 than any other tank at Hanford. It has been known for over fifty years that strontium-90 settles to the bottom of a tank and the heat it generates causes liquids in the tanks to boil and weaken the tank walls enough to crack them. Once the radioactive sludge has leaked through the inner wall, the secondary wall of a double walled tank could be corroded and the waste could leak out into the environment. This is an old, serious and well known problem. The lack of specific detailed instructions about what to do when an alarm signals a leak in such a situation is more than incompetent.
I have repeatedly said that I think that all nuclear power generation in the world should be shut down as quickly as possible. It won’t be cheap or easy but neither will disposing of all the nuclear waste and cleaning up after more serious accidents that will happen the longer we use nuclear energy to generate electricity. The situation with tank AY-102 at Hanford is a perfect example of why I fear nuclear power. There was highly radioactive waste that was known to be a threat to the integrity of the tanks. There was no specific procedure in place to deal with such leaks although the potential for a leak was known for decades. When a leak occurred, the company responsible for the tanks would not admit there was a leak for a year. They claimed that there was a response procedure that did not exist and tried to cover their tracks by changing of manuals and additional lies after the fact. Hanford is one of the most radioactively contaminated places on the whole planet. How can we trust the competence and integrity of companies that handle nuclear waste in light of the behavior of Washington River Protection Solutions at Hanford?
Area between the walls of tank AY-102:
-
Geiger Readings for May 13, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 13, 2013
Ambient office = .046 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .061 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = .071 microsieverts per hour
Banana from Costco = .105 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .127 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .100 microsieverts per hour
-
Radiation News Roundup May 12, 2013
An underground landfill fire near tons of nuclear waste raises serious health and safety concerns. rollingstone.com
Police and the Japan Coast Guard conducted a joint drill Saturday to prepare for a possible terrorist attack on the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. japantimes.co.jp
Florida House moves to fix nuclear tax law. yournuclearnews.com
-
Geiger Readings for May 12, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on May 12, 2013
Ambient office = .069 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .081 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain water = .062 microsieverts per hour
Vine ripened tomato from Costco = .090 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .119 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .105 microsieverts per hour
