On
Monday, an
earthquake hit Kashiwazaki in north-western Japan, killing nine
people and injuring hundreds more. Already a disaster for the citizens
of Kashiwazaki, thousands of whom are now living in shelters, things
could have been much, much worse.
Kawashaki
is the location of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant – the
site of seven nuclear reactors. At first it was thought that the 6.8
magnitude earthquake had just caused a fire at the plant and
Tepco – the nuclear company - initially said no radioactivity
was released. "No harm" was done, said a spokesperson.
Then we
were told that in fact there had been a leak, but it was only 1.5
gallons of radioactive water. On Tuesday, it emerged that just a
smidgen more radioactive water might have leaked more than 315 gallons. About
243 times more. And the water was 50 times more radioactive than
had been stated.
Then came
the news that
around a hundred nuclear waste barrels had fallen over - but only
a couple of dozen of them lost their lids and leaked low grade nuclear
waste. Finally, there was the atmospheric release of cobalt-60,
chromium-51 and radioactive
iodine...
*Editors
note: "It would appear that the only facets of nuclear
power that must be risk free are financing and liability. How
about a 100% loan guarantee for my mortgage, car loan
and credit cards? "
ARE UTAHNS
IN DANGER? COULD THE RADIOACTIVITY INDEED BE FALLOUT FROM 1950S NEVADA
ATOMIC TESTING THAT LANDED IN UTAH? Courtesy Andrew
Kishner
In 2006,
an international team of scientists made an interesting discovery:
forest fires are capable of re-distributing radionuclides over great
distances. Science News, a weekly newsmagazine, reported
on the discovery in their July 2006 article Radiation
Redux: Forest Fires remobilize fallout from bomb tests: "A sensitive
instrument installed in the Canadian Arctic to monitor fallout from
modern nuclear tests has detected small amounts of radioactive
cesium produced by bomb tests decades ago. The material, which
during the Cold War was spread across northern latitudes by
high-altitude winds, is still being redistributed far and wide
by forest fires, researchers say."
The group
of international scientists published their paper, titled Inter-
and intra-continental transport of radioactive cesium released by
boreal forest fires, in the journal Geophysical Research Letters
in 2006 and cited a number of previous
studies. The researchers concluded in their paper that
their finding "demonstrates that 137Cs deposited world-wide from
past nuclear testing is re-injected into the atmosphere by combustion
to a significant extent and on a large scale, and is subsequently
transported across great distances." Powerpoint
slide
How much
Cesium could have been resuspended from the Milford Flat fire? A
1996 study, 'Burning radionuclide question: What happens to iodine,
cesium and chlorine in biomass fires?,' published in the journal,
Science of the Total Environment (Aug 30 1996), found that 40-70%
of Cesium is lost to the atmosphere during a typical fire.
Abstract: Fires
can mobilize radionuclides from contaminated biomass through
suspension of gases and particles in the atmosphere or solubilization
and enrichment of the ash. Field and laboratory burns were conducted
to determine the fate of I, Cs and Cl in biomass fires. Straw,
wood, peat, dulse (seaweed) and radish plants were combusted
with temperatures varying from 160 to 1000 degrees C, representing
the normal range of field fire temperatures. Loss to the atmosphere
increased with fire temperature and during a typical field fire,
80-90% of the I and Cl, and 40-70% of the Cs was lost to the
atmosphere. The remainder was left behind in the ash and was
soluble. Typically, the ash was enriched in I by a factor of
two to three, with higher enrichments of Cs and lower enrichments
of Cl, when compared to the initial fuel concentration during
field burns. Most of the I was lost to the atmosphere as a gas.
If the elements were radioactive isotopes, such as I-129, Cs-137
and Cl-36, fires could cause an increased radiological dose to
people through inhalation, exposure to ash, or ingestion of plants
because of increased uptake of ash leachate.
ADDENDUM
TO ABOVE, GAMMA RADIATION "OFF THE CHARTS" 07/16/07
"The
Milford Flat fire, which has consumed over 363,000 acres - about
the size of Los Angeles - is the largest wildfire in Utah's history.
A federal agency, the NNSA, recently detected higher than normal
radiation levels coming from fire and believes the radiation is
radon gas and doesn't pose a danger. Critics,
however, say that the NNSA is wrong: the radiation is not just
radon and the levels aren't as low as the NNSA is saying." -
Andrew Kishner
THE
NUCLEAR WEAPONS ERADICATION COMPACT By Concerned
Citizens of the State of Utah Draft of
February 17, 2007:
Intended for Widespread Reading, Adoption, and Adaptation
OneDOJ is
by no means the United States' first attempt at doing nationwide information
sharing among state and federal law enforcement agencies. The now-defunct
predecessor to OneDOJ was a distributed database project called the Multistate
Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX), and the Privacy Office
of DHS has just released a report knocking
the program for a lack of transparency and attention to privacy concerns.
This report
was one of two released by the office right before Christmas, a time
typically reserved for announcing bad news that a government or corporation
wants to bury if possible.
A second report detailed
the ways that the TSA's public statements about the privacy safeguards
in its infamous Secure Flight program failed to match up to the program's
reality.
This
recently released report shows sloppiness at the Test Site, and that
a lot more radiation went off site from the 433 "underground tests" than
was generally known at the time. If you look at the document, you
will note radiation from these underground tests was detected in California,
Arizona, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Washington, Iowa, Montana and other
places. The radioactive clouds were tracked in some instances by
airplane, and radiation was detected in cows milk. Some of
the underground tests were planned to result in the release of radiation
into the atmosphere, in violation of the international Test Ban Treaty. They
were technically "underground," but it was known that the detonation
would create a crater and mushroom cloud. Cross reference the glossary
with the post-1963 test data to identify which blasts were violations
of the Test Ban Treaty. Some of the noteworthy pages are PP.
55, 85, 89, 98, 99, 103, 105, 106, and 236.
Finally,
many of the tests specify the direction the radioactive cloud moved off
the Test Site. Many of those clouds went in a southerly direction. All
mysteriously disappeared or were no longer detected after they crossed
into California. Nowhere is Las Vegas mentioned in those reports
of the radioactive cloud moving ina
southerly direction.
How
drug-free zone laws impact racial disparity–and fail to protect
youth, by Judith Greene, Kevin
Pranis and Jason Ziedenberg, The Justice
Policy Institute, March 23rd, 2006
Founded in 1997 to provide
information and advocacy on issues of social and economic justice, the
Citizens Education Project has spearheaded successful campaigns to stop
privatization of prisons and prison medical services in Utah, led efforts
to block the disposal of nuclear wastes at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and
in Utah, exposed Utah’s participation in the data-mining MATRIX
program and forced the state’s withdrawal from MATRIX, and plays
a leading role in preventing the resumption of nuclear weapons testing.
CEP
is the only consistent watchdog and critic of programs and activities
at the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground,
the nation’s primary test and evaluation facility for chemical
and biological defense work. CEP proposes to continue monitoring of Dugway’s
planned massive expansions of chemical and biological agent testing,
exposing environmental impact statements and assessments creating new
bio-labs and new field tests, and push for greater state oversight of
Dugway’s projects. CEP will also monitor the states’ use
of federal bio-terrorism funding, will network with allied organizations
regionally and nationally, will file Freedom of Information Act requests
as appropriate, and will disseminate information through the press, with
distribution of flyers and information packets, and through our web site
(citizensedproject.org).
-
ARTICLES -
SUNSHINE PROJECT: MANDATE FOR FAILURE:THE
STATE OF INSTITUTIONAL BIOSAFETY COMMITTEES IN AN AGE
OF BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS RESEARCH, THIS 52 PAGE REPORT
IS A 3.1 MB FILE IN PDF FORMAT. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.
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