Radiation Watch 2013

Greetings:

It is with a heavy heart that we have to begin RADIATION WATCH 2013.

As of 21 December 2012, it has been 651 days that Planet Earth has been at war with the nuclear industry - and, unfortunately, our dear beloved Mother Earth seems to be losing the fallout depopulation battle.










... whatever moniker one may want to hang on it - we're sure that it's a mere coinkydink that the radiation rain-outs of the past few months



have so weakened our auto-immune systems so much that 'everyone' is now mandated to get gubmint 'flu shots' - or else, in some cases - OR ELSE YOU COULD LOSE YOUR JOB!

Add the U.S. commercial nuclear power plant locations for grins.



However, we are happy to start with some good news.

Skull Valley Goshute Margene Bullcreek led the fight against the radioactive waste dump targeted at her community. (Photo by Gabriela Bulisova)


22 December 2012

PFS pulls the plug on parking lot dump targeted at Skull Valley Goshutes in Utah

As reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, the Private Fuel Storage (PFS) Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) has given up on its plans to turn the tiny Skull Valley Goshutes Indian Reservation in Utah into a parking lot dump (or "centralized interim storage facility") for commercial high-level radioactive waste. 

At one time, PFS was comprised of more than a dozen nuclear utilities, led by Xcel Energy of Minnesota, with Dairyland Power Co-Op as a front group.

In 2005-2006, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted PFS a construction and operating license, despite objections by traditionals with the Skull Valley band, nearly 500 environmental and environmental justice organizations, as well as the State of Utah. The plan was for 40,000 metric tons of irradiated nuclear fuel to be "temporarily stored" (for 20 to 40 years) in 4,000 dry casks on the reservation.

However, as the ultimate plan was to transfer the wastes to the Yucca Mountain dump, when that proposal was cancelled in 2009, this would have meant the wastes would have been stuck indefinitely at Skull Valley.

In 2006 a very unlikely coalition, involving the likes of Mormon political leaders and wilderness advocates, succeeded in creating the first federal wilderness area in Utah in a generation.

This created a "moat" around the Skull Valley reservation, blocking the railway needed to directly deliver the waste.

(We proposed this action plan at Avila Beach way back in 1979 as a way to DENY NUCLEAR not only at Diablo Canyon but, perhaps more importantly - at the San Onofre NPP in San Diego.)

And, after lobbying efforts at the top echelons of Republican Party decision making circles by U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) as well as Utah Governor Huntsman, the George W. Bush administration's Department of the Interior refused to approve the lease agreement between PFS and the Skull Valley band, as well as the intermodal transfer facility on Bureau of Land Management property which could have allowed heavy haul trucks to ship the waste containers the final leg of the journey to the reservation.

The Skull Valley Goshutes were first targeted by the nuclear power establishment more than 20 years ago.

Altogether, 60-some tribes have been actively targeted for high-level radioactive waste parking lot dumps.

All the proposals have been stopped, as through the work of Native American grassroots environmental activists like Grace Thorpe (NoTen O Quah), working in alliance with environmental and environmental justice organizations.


Yucca Mountain, as viewed through the frame of a Western Shoshone ceremonial sweat lodge. Photo by Gabriela Bulisova.

21 December 201
25 years ago today, the "Screw Nevada Bill" was passed

As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal, in the wee hours of Dec. 22, 1987, 49 states ganged up on one, singling out Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the sole site in the country for further study as a potential national dump for high-level radioactive waste.

Numerous targeted dumpsites in the East had been indefinitely postponed a year or two before, due to widespread public resistance. Deaf Smith County, TX and Hanford, WA were also being considered for the western dumpsite.

But TX had 32 U.S. Representatives, WA had a dozen, and NV, just one. TX and WA Representatives also held the powerful House Speaker and Majority Leader slots. On the Senate side, NV had two rookie Senators, regarded at the time as easy to roll. The "raw, naked" political decision was made behind closed doors.

But the science -- Yucca's geological and hydrological unsuitability -- caught up to the proposal. So did Harry Reid's revenge, as he grew in power to become Senate Majority Leader. Led by Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney, the Western Shoshone National Council maintained tireless opposition to the dump, joined, over time, by more than 1,000 environmental groups. Then, in 2009, President Obama and his Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, wisely cancelled the dangerous, controversial proposal.

Although $11 billion of ratepayer and taxpayer money had already been wasted, another $90 billion would have been wasted if the project had gone forward. If the dumpsite had opened, many thousands of high-level radioactive waste trucks, trains, and barges would have travelled through most states, past the homes of tens of millions of Americans, at risk of severe accidents or intentional attacks unleashing disastrous amounts of radioactivity into metro areas.

And if wastes had been buried at Yucca, it would have eventually leaked into the environment (beginning within centuries or at most thousands of years), dooming the region downwind and downstream as a nuclear sacrifice area.

Dec. 21st marked the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

[color=magenta]Peace Love Light
tfw [color=magenta]Liberty & Equality or Revolution

Nice one ..

Thank you ..

reply to post by thorfourwinds


Explanation: S&F!





Hooray for good news!

And ...

Booooo! for the FukuFalloutFlu!

Personal Disclosure: Bumped ... for JUSTICE!

Quote ....
"And if wastes had been buried at Yucca, it would have eventually leaked into the environment (beginning within centuries or at most thousands of years), dooming the region downwind and downstream as a nuclear sacrifice area."


I think it had always been hoped that the future would bring methods or a technology to deal with the radioactive garbage that we have stored. But saddling the future with that task is all that we have been able to do. Hopefully at the rate that technology is multiplying, a solution can be found soon. Otherwise we know the outcome. The Romans found out with Lead plumbing.

thorfourwinds No matter your ignorant propaganda, the fact remains not millions, not even hundreds have so far died from Fukushima. And almost nobody (barring a few highly biased cranks) is predicting otherwise.

The fact also remains: Coal emits 100 times more radiation per unit of electricity generated than an equivalent sized nuclear powered station
www.preda.org...
www.scientificamerican.com...
That coal also kills around 4000 times more people than nuclear
thebreakthrough.org...
nextbigfuture.com...

The difference with coal is it tends to contaminate everywhere totally but mildly, whilst nuclear also contaminates everywhere but most a few areas intensely.

It is Japan’s increased use of coal fools since Fukushima like you should be campaigning against in order to save humanity both from subtle death, and long-term climate problems.
thebreakthrough.org...#

And Japan (like Germany www.bloomberg.com...
are all now using more fossil fuels). This is not what you want, but it is down to what you want i.e. your insane campaigning against nuclear (especially in such a narrowly minded, single sided way).

So although you don’t (and can’t ever) have what you apparently want of electricity from a windmill & treadmill powered society; you do at least succeed in making this world a much more dirty, dangerous, and generally nastier place for your existence, than without it.

reply to post by Plotus


Wasn't there a discovery a while back about bacteria that can eat radioactive waste?

Perhaps you're not to far off, Plotus...If we can just culture more and more of these bacteria, perhaps the area around Fukushima and maybe Chernobyl and Pripyat.

ETA: I've been seeing articles about bacteria and fungi...so have an article about the bacteria:

www.nsf.gov...

You know, your right, I vaguely do remember an article somewhere recently. Lets hope it can be cultured into the mainstream.

World's Toughest Fixes: Nuclear TurbineLiving 30min from a nuke plant, and another an hour south west, and another 2.5 hours south east, i feel pretty safe, haha. oh yea, one of them is TMI. As far as our local Susquahana Plant near Berwick, PA, it has the storage in containers above ground. A good source of mine actually headed one of the teams that designed the modern containers, and I've seen pictures. You can see the video online if you look for "World's Toughest Fixes" I believe it's called. It's one of those TV shows where some guy tags along when they build windmills, bridge repairs, and in the one with the nuke plant turbine replacement, it is located right near me, and they show the storage containers at one part in the episode.


Edit:I scanned the link for the part with storage containers and it wants me to purchase a season pass to view the full episode. I watched it on Netflix however a few times and it has been on the science, discovery and nat geo tv channels.

reply to post by Liberal1984

The difference with coal is it tends to contaminate everywhere totally but mildly, whilst nuclear also contaminates everywhere but most a few areas intensely.

You make stuff up as you go?

"Totally but mildy"

"Few areas intensely".

The Scientific American article you cited stated that coal fired plants "have more 'radiation' around them than Nuclear power plants".

Read that Operating Nuclear Power plants. Not ones that frigging exploded and melted down. Before you call people insane look at your own backyard.

Thank you Thor for bringing this to the forefront again.

In the Fukushima-era, Why No One Notices the Gagged Scientists

In the wake of the meltdowns at Fukushima, websites and blogs cropped up in abundance and over 18 months later these online watchdogs still play a crucial role in linking the news-hungry public with expert perspectives and data ignored by the negligent mainstream media.
Although their efforts at filling in news gaps left by our out-to-lunch mainstream media are commendable, the watchdog community has been neglectful in its own part.

While these online organizations see that the mainstream news isn't doing its job, they fail to notice how oodles of scientists ought be part of the Fukushima discussion but aren't. Scientists are being eerily silent and this huge issue isn't being addressed by activists.

This is perhaps to be expected. We usually subconsciously shy away from the topic of government coverups in fear of the conceptual collision between rational thought and personal allegiances. It's easier to focus on nuclear disasters and not 'see the forest,' or the fact our government took our power to 'go wild' with nukes and then silenced scientists to keep the wool pulled over our eyes.

Comprehending the Fukushima disaster, including the impacts on health and environment, requires synthesizing numerous scientific disciplines. But an entire world of scientists who ordinarily would chime in about a large-scale disaster won't do so about Fukushima because there would be negative repercussions in their lives. Scientists are unwilling to go on record about nuclear topics because they know what happens to those who speak out. Nuclear experts through the decades who warned of the health consequences of low dose radiation had their security clearances revoked, their funding dried up and even their travel visas turned down. These 'punishments' were doled out by government bureaucrats who were doing their job per directives.

A democracy can't operate when citizens are not well informed and sadly this is what government wants - to ensure that democracy doesn't function so that people don't wise up and oppose nuclear technology and weaponry. Our biggest problem isn't a delinquent media. We've got government censorship and intimidation, which are tools of tyranny. We ought to use our freedom of speech more wisely than we're currently doing. #

nuclearcrimes.org...

reply to post by Liberal1984


Wow just wow, thanks for saving us from our ignorance. Really?

I still dont get Brittish humor, are you joking?

Meanwhile in the real world, a consensus is forming that the linear-no-threshold model used by some alarmists to predicts lots of deaths from low levels of radiation is incorrect.

www.forbes.com...

Gov’t Map: Fukushima fallout transported directly to U.S. — Canada, Mexico avoided much of contamination after 3/11

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collaborated with the National Atmospheric Deposition Program ..

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collaborated with the National Atmospheric Deposition Program in an effort to monitor North American precipitation samples for the presence of nuclear fallout in response to the Japan Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station incident that occurred on March 11, 2011.

The study found concentrations (activity) and fallout (deposition) of radioactive iodine and radioactive cesium in significant number of samples. Detectable quantities of Iodine-131, Cesium-137, and Cesium-134 were observed at 21% of the 167 tested locations. Concentrations of I-131 detected in 5 samples ranged from 29.6 to 1090 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). Concentrations of Cs-134 detected in 23 samples ranged from 0.4 to 55 pCi/L. Concentrations of Cs-137 in 33 samples ranged from 0.70 pCi/L to 39 pCi/L.

Detections and measurable fallout from wet deposition was observed primarily at NADP sites located along the West Coast of the US, the central Rocky Mountain region and northern Great Plains, the central and upper Mississippi River Valley and eastern mountainous regions ranging from Virginia northward through Vermont.

nadp.sws.uiuc.edu...

reply to post by thorfourwinds


Well thought out and put together OP as in I can see where your going with this. The Flu is out of control this season.
But I do have some question, why now? Why didn't we suffer this fallout flu just after Fukushima? Fukushima happened 2011 and it's now 2013 do I miss something? Just asking.

S & F

reply to post by thorfourwinds


If your maps and charts were correct, then why is it that the east coast is suffering more than the west coast? Your charts show that Cali and the west coast should be knee deep in this flu and sickness, however it's places along the eastern coast, see Boston's state of emergency, that are getting the brunt of this. I know here in the southeast it's terrible. The main cause is 4 days of 15mph winds and 34 degree weather followed by 8 days of 70 degree weather, then rain and cold again. Drastic temp changes are a major cause of sinus infections and respiratory problems.

Either that or other nuke plants on the east coast must be melting down and blowing it all down here. Your maps conflict one another as well.

reply to post by Maslo

Tha depends on what you consider a "low dose". The "nuclide" (read that smaller than an atom) bit of xray machine in your body that is bombarding nearby cells with alpha radiation is not even detectable unless you get a "full body scan" Those are expensive by the way.

Hers a pic of what it does to living flesh...

A particle of plutonium 239 revealed by autoradiography. The black star in the middle of the picture shows tracks made by alpha rays emitted from a particle of plutonium 239 in the lung tissue of an ape. The alpha rays do not travel very far but once inside the body they can penetrate more than 10,000 cells within their range. This set of alpha tracks (magnified 500 times) occured over a 48 hr period. The plutonium 239 particle that emitted them has a half life of 24,400 years. [Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley California, September 20, 1982.]

This illustration is taken from Robert Del Tredici's book Working in the Fields of the Bomb - published in 1987. It shows a plutonium particle emitting ionising radiation. The tracks are about 35 microns (5 cell diameters) but this is a two dimensional view of a 3D tissue event, which in fact occurs continuously in biological space. Like a land mine that never stops exploding, it is perpetually damaging and destroying cells.

Did I read that correctly? 24,000 year long mini land mine in my flesh? Some cells are destroyed and die. Others heal but the next time they divide "may mutate" and that gives rise to incidences of cancer. It doesn't mean you are going to get cancer , just that the odds of that are increased by having "radioactive contamination" in your system. This is not a "low dose" as defined by the posters linked article, it is a continuos dose.

www.animatedsoftware.com...

People have to keep in mind that the fallout doesn't blanket an area evenly like most folks think. Sorry, it just doesn't work like that, and either will the future cancers. There seem to be "sweet spots" and "corridors"
Potrblog puts out the theory that the edges of the jet stream dump much more radiation than the faster moving center. Still to early for me to agree or disagree. I've had hot rain with both.
We have no idea why the fallout is jamming up in areas on the west side of the great lakes, but the lakes are having an effect. Whatever it is, someone has already named it "The Minnisota/Wisconsin catcher's mit"
Our little group of civilian rad checkers is still doing our best to figure things out, without the clutter and BS of "experts".
All I can say is be patient.

We had a couple of days of above zero temps here in Ontario, and got some rain. My down spouts are still deep under the snow so I wiped the car winshield with a paper towel and tested it, yesterday.


The same kind of rain swipe test from a friend in Brazil, Jan 7th.

My buddy in southern Brazil asks "Why can't Arnie and his pal Mark with all their equipment, knowledge, funding test their rain just once and give us a complete breakdown of all isotopes and the percentages?"
Yes why?

Jan 8th England


Madness.

reply to post by thorfourwinds


Nuclear power is actually pretty good. You're focusing on primitive nuclear power, while totally ignoring that you can even use nuclear waste as a power source in more modern designs.

Nature isn't at war with nuclear industry. It runs on it. That big sun? That's nuclear. I see no reason to fight what is essentially powering the planet already.

reply to post by Gorman91

That big sun? That's nuclear. I see no reason to fight what is essentially powering the planet already.

Two completely different things. But I agree with you, the sun is good enough. We don't need any more.

reply to post by Gorman91

That big sun? That's nuclear. I see no reason to fight what is essentially powering the planet already.

Two completely different things. But I agree with you, the sun is good enough. We don't need any more.