Radioactive black fungus from Japan is being blown to the US. optimalprediction.com
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Geiger Readings for April 9, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 9, 2013
Ambient office = .093 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .112 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .116 microsieverts per hour
Banana from local grocery store = .090 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .116 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .081 microsieverts per hour
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U.S. Nuclear Reactors 27 – Nine Mile Point, New York
The Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station is located on Lake Ontario near Oswego, New York. The plant contains two General Electric boiling water reactors. Unit One can generate six hundred and ten megawatts. It was issued an operation license for forty years in 1974 which was renewed for an additional twenty years in 2006. Unit Two can generate one thousand and eighty megawatts. It was issued an operation license for forty years in 1987 which was renewed for an additional twenty years in 2006. The plant is operated by Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC. The plant was constructed by Niagara Mohawk Power Corporations and eventually sold in 2000 to Constellation Nuclear.
The population in the NRC plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of ten miles around the plant contains about thirty seven thousand people. The NRC ingestion pathway zone with a radius of fifty miles around the plant contains about nine hundred thousand people. The NRC estimates that there is a extremely low risk of an earthquake that could damage the plant.
Between 1979 and 1996, there were repeated reports of cracking in the core shroud, the walls, drain lines, condensers, control rod stub tubes and other components and systems in the Unit One reactor. The Union of Concerned scientists called the situation at Unit One the worst case of cracking in the entire United States reactor fleet. Systemic mismanagement led to a record of almost one complaint a month for this twenty year period. In 1987, the NRC shut down Unit One after the owners admitted that there was a major waste handling problem. Primary coolant water flooded the waste building for years and fifty thousand gallons were pumped into Lake Ontario shortly before the forced shutdown. It took two years for the owners to clean up the mess sufficiently to be allowed to restart Unit One.
The Unit Two reactor took fifteen years and cost six billion four hundred million dollars to construct. This made it the most expensive reactor in the world at that point. In spite of the enormous amount of money spent, shoddy construction has been a continuing problem. In 1991, there was almost a meltdown because of the failure of electrical systems in the control room. In 1999, there was a similar event that resulted in a drop in coolant levels that was very dangerous. The reactor core isolation cooling system has malfunctioned or failed at least four times. After ten years of operation, large cracks were discovered in the Unit Two core shroud.
Poor design, cracks everywhere, mismanagement, major leaks of coolants, failure of critical systems, cost overruns, multi-year shutdowns for repairs. These plants should not have been relicensed in 2006.
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Radiation News Roundup for April 8, 3013
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Geiger Readings for April 8, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 8, 2013
Ambient office = .089 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .087 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .087 microsieverts per hour
Mango from local grocery store = .114 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .062 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .054 microsieverts per hour
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Geiger Readings for April 7, 2013
Geiger Counter Readings in Seattle, WA on April 7, 2013
Ambient office = .070 microsieverts per hour
Ambient outside = .051 microsieverts per hour
Soil exposed to rain = .079 microsieverts per hour
Kirkland salted butter from local Costco = .079 microsieverts per hour
Tap water = .148 microsieverts per hour
Filtered water = .127 microsieverts per hour
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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!
