TEPCO just had an emergency press conference about a new highly radioactive leak at Fukushima Daiichi. enenews.com
A Fukushima spent fuel pool cooling system failed for second time in a month. guardian.co.uk
Blog
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Geiger Readings for April 06, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 6, 2013
Ambient office = .058 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .128 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .098 microsieverts per hour
Asparagas from local grocery store = .138 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .136 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .115 microsieverts per hour
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Nuclerar Accidents 13 – Fukushima 7 – What about the Children?
Writing a blog is an interesting experience. You have a general subject area and an intended audience. Some writers express themselves very academically while others can get hysterical. Some writers are careful to stick to well established facts while others indulge in wild speculation and fantasy. I personally try to start with the facts and to keep my emotional reactions to a minimum. However, I have to admit that I have been getting angry lately at some of the stories I have been reading while researching for this blog.
I have devoted numerous blog posts to the Fukushima accident because it happened recently and it is very instructive to study all the different things that led up to the accident and all the repercussions that spread out from the moment of the accident like ripples cause by dropping a rock in a pool of water. There have been political, social, psychological, environmental, economic, legal, and many other impacts in Japan and, to some degree, the world. One of the most troubling impacts is the effect that radiation released from the accident has had and will have on human health.
In Japan, there have been many different reports of various health effects of the accident ranging from direct radiation exposure of the workers all the way to psychosomatic complains of people living in the area. Until recently, there has been little talk about health effects in other countries. In order to estimate the possible impact on the health of U.S. citizens, for example, it is necessary to monitor the fallout in a particular area. The United States Environmental Protection Agency is tasked with that responsibility. In the case of Fukushima, it failed badly.
This is a quote from the Global Security Newswire website about what happened here in the U.S. following Fukushima.
“WASHINGTON – An internal audit has confirmed observers’ concerns that many of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s radiation monitors were out of service at the height of the 2011 Fukushima power plant meltdown in Japan, a finding one critic said raises “serious questions” about the federal government’s ability to respond to nuclear emergencies and to alert the public of their consequences (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2011).
The April 19 , 2012 report by the EPA Inspector General’s Office also casts further doubt on the agency’s already controversial claims that radiation from Fukushima did not pose any public health threat on U.S. soil, said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California (Santa Cruz) and president of Committee to Bridge the Gap.”
In addition, the EPA stopped extra testing for Fukushima radiation within a few months of the disaster.
Here is a quote from a recent article on the MSN website:
“According to the report (from the Radiation and Public Health Project), kids who were between 1 and 16 weeks old (in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon or Washington) when the reactors blew have a 28 percent greater chance of having congenital hyperthyroidism, which can stunt body and brain development, than kids born in those states one year earlier. And sadly, they say congenital hypothyroidism might be just the beginning of potential health impacts to come.”
I live in the Pacific Northwest and understood that radiation from Fukushima was reaching my area but the U.S. Government assured everyone that there was no public health risk. This has been proven to be false. We are just beginning to find out about the health effects of Fukushima in the U.S. I have to admit that I got really angry when I read the article about the children yesterday. The EPA and the U.S. Government have failed the people of this country and newborn children are suffering because of it. This is intolerable! There have been articles lately about how many lives nuclear power saved because we did not build fossil fuel plants instead. I am afraid that these reports are over optimistic about the safety of nuclear power. The United States is building new nuclear reactors and touting the benefits and safety of nuclear power. This is a serious mistake!
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Radiation News Roundup for April 5, 2013
The United States helped the Czech Republic remove its nuclear material. hosted2.ap.org
Iran, big powers appear miles apart at nuclear talks. reuters.com
NRC schedules meetings to discuss Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 performance and Watts Bar Unit 2 construction. chattanoogan.com
Three workers were injured in a Callaway Nuclear Plant switchyard accident. nuclearstreet.com
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Geiger Readings for April 5, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 5, 2013
Ambient office = .115 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .103 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .096 microsieverts per hour
Red Carribian papaya from local grocery store = .086 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .127 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .094 microsieverts per hour
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U.S. Nuclear Reactors, Millstone, Connecticut
The Millstone Nuclear Power Station is located near Waterford, Connecticut in an old quarry and it draws cooling water from Niantic Bay on Long Island Sound. There are two operating General Electric pressurized water reactors on the site. Unit Two is an 870 megawatt Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor that started generating power in 1985 with a forty years license. Unit Three is an 1150 megawatt Westinghouse pressurized water reactor that started generating power in 1986 with a forty years license. Both units were relicensed in 2005 for an additional twenty years. The plant was built by Northeast Nuclear Energy and is currently owned and operated by Dominion Nuclear.
The population in the NRC plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of ten miles around the plant contains about one hundred and thirty thousand people. The NRC ingestion pathway zone with a radius of fifty miles around the plant contains about three million people. The NRC estimates that there is a low risk of an earthquake that could damage the plant.
In 1988, leaks were reported at Millstone. In 1991, eight control rods did not insert properly during emergency shutdown. In 1993, leaks caused Unit Three to be shut down and problems were discovered in the emergency power supply while Unit Two was shut down for refueling. In 1996, Northeast Utilities, the parent company for Northeast Nuclear Energy, voluntarily shut down Unit Two because it had some of the same problems that had been identified in a study of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Part of the reason for the shutdown was a lot of other problems that the plant had been having. Unit Two remained offline for three years as extensive changes were made to management and to the physical plant in light of the repeated inspections and warnings since 1991. Unit Three was shut down in 1996 because the NRC determined that the containment isolation valves did not comply with regulations. It remained offline for two years while repairs were made.
In 1999, two subsidiaries of the corporation that owned Millstone pled guilty to twenty five violations for environmental and nuclear laws and paid a ten million dollar fine. The charges included problems with nuclear training and environmental impact at Millstone. The problems at Millstone prompted a deep review of NRC procedures. A cover story in Time magazine in 1996 discussed the problems at the Millstone reactor. Following a review of the procedures for inspections and warnings, the NRC made extensive changes to its system of inspections and notifications. Only the Three Mile Island accident prompted more changes in the inspection and regulation of nuclear reactors in the United States. In 2000, the Millstone plant was sold to Dominion Nuclear and since the sale, the reputation of the plant for following NRC regulations has improved considerably.
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Radiation News Roundup for April 4, 2013
US residents near the Hanford Nuclear Reservation may be in grave danger. rt.com
Radioactive in man’s body in Fukushima is still 300% over background levels. youtube.com
No permits for uranium exploration or mining will be issued in Quebec until an independent study into its environmental impact has been completed. world-nuclear-news.org
Uranium mining company Toro Energy has been granted federal environmental approval for the Wiluna uranium project in the state of Western Australia. world-nuclear-news.org
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Geiger Readings for April 4, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 4, 2013
Ambient office = .074 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .093 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .098 microsieverts per hour
Marinated artichoke hearts from local grocery store .112 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .116 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .108 microsieverts per hour
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Geiger Readings for April 03, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 3, 2013
Ambient office = .102 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .105 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .086 microsieverts per hour
Feta cheese from local grocery store .105 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .105 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .092 microsieverts per hour
