Saving the world at Plutonium Mountain
…Such hidden repositories might be found elsewhere, wherever nations have tested nuclear weapons or carried out other research on fissile materials such as plutonium. Will all that scientific collaboration and goodwill be readily available? It is true, as the plaque at Degelen Mountain attests, that the world is safer thanks to this operation. But it is also true that the scars left by nuclear weapons testing during the Cold War will last for millennia….
Published: AUGUST 16, 11:47 AM ET
David E. Hoffman is a contributing editor at The Washington Post. Eben Harrell is an associate at the Project on Managing the Atom in the Belfer Center at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, which is publishing a detailed account of the Semipalatinsk operation. This report was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
IN KURCHATOV CITY, Kazakhstan
Last October, at the foot of a rocky hillside near here, at a spot known as Degelen Mountain, several dozen Kazakh, Russian and American nuclear scientists and engineers gathered for a ceremony. After a few speeches, they unveiled a three-sided stone monument, etched in English, Russian and Kazakh, which declared:
“1996-2012. The world has become safer.”
The modest ribbon-cutting marked the conclusion of one of the largest and most complex nuclear security operations since the Cold War. The secret mission was to secure plutonium — enough to build a dozen or more nuclear weapons — that Soviet authorities had buried at the testing site years before and forgotten, leaving it vulnerable to terrorists and rogue states.
The effort spanned 17 years, cost $150 million and involved a complex mix of intelligence, science, engineering, politics and sleuthing. This account is based on documents and interviews with Kazakh, Russian and U.S. participants, and reveals the scope of the operation for the first time. The effort was almost entirely conceived and implemented by scientists and government officials operating without formal agreements among the nations involved. Many of these scientists were veterans of Cold War nuclear-testing programs, but they overcame their mistrust and joined forces to clean up and secure the Semipalatinsk testing site, a dangerous legacy of the nuclear arms race.
They succeeded, but what they accomplished here may have to be done all over again if the walls of secrecy ever come down and reveal security vulnerabilities in other states that have developed the atomic bomb, including North Korea, Pakistan, China, India and Israel, or in countries that may develop weapons in the future, such as Iran.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union carried out more than 450 nuclear explosive tests at the Semipalatinsk site, which sprawls over a portion of the Kazakh plains slightly larger than Connecticut. Most of the tests involved atomic explosions, while others were carried out to improve weapons safety, in part by examining the impact of conventional explosives on plutonium metal. A network of tunnels built under Degelen Mountain became the epicenter of these tests.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Russians gradually abandoned the site. Economic conditions in the main city near the testing grounds grew desperate, and residents began to search the tunnels for metal to sell. They used mining equipment to steal copper from the electrical wiring and to scavenge rails that once carried nuclear devices far underground for explosive testing.
In the 1990s, the United States, through an agency in the Pentagon dealing with nuclear security, funded a program to close off the entrances to the tunnels at Semipalatinsk so they could never again be used for nuclear tests. The tunnels were sealed at the portals but not explored to any depth. Plutonium from the earlier safety tests lay deep inside.
Anti-Kudankulam activists to raise protest to next level
….Though the Indian government accused PMANE of getting foreign funds and even raided some NGOs, the allegations were not proved. On its part, PMANE threw open its books of accounts for public scrutiny…..
looks like a plane is going to ram the nuclear power plant… safe ???? Image source : http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/4-children-arrested-near-idinthakarai-face-sedition-charges/article3898050.ece
CHENNAI: Even as the first unit at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) is progressing to generate 500 MW of electricity, the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) feels that the villagers in the neighbouring areas have not lost their steam.
“It is true that the plant has started the fission process. But that does not mean the people have accepted the power plant or that support for the protest has gone down. If only the administration does not hinder free flow of vehicles then you will see the large number of people gathering here as it used to be during the initial days of the protest,” PMANEco-ordinator S. P. Udayakumar told IANS on the phone from Idinthakarai in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant from where the protest is being directed.
Even Indian and foreign accredited journalists were not allowed to enter Idinthakarai village in Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from here. Recently two journalists from Delhi – one Indian and one foreign – from a German radio station were denied permission to meet PMANE members.
Udayakumar said people are protesting against the setting up of a nuclear power plant in a non-violent way for the past two years but cases have been registered against them for sedition in a country that got its freedom by similar protests against the colonial British rulers.
“More than 325 cases, including around 20 cases of sedition and waging war against the country have been registered against the protestors. The morale of the people is still high and we are getting support from unexpected quarters,” he added.
The irony is that people who are demanding bifurcation of the state are left untouched, he said.
India’s atomic power plant operator, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), is setting up two 1,000 MW Russian reactors at Kudankulam. After several years of delay, the first 1,000 MW reactor at KNPP and India’s 21st reactor began its nuclear fission process at 11.05pm on July 13.
After a brief shutdown, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) on Wednesday permitted NPCIL to operate the first unit at 50 percent capacity.
“We have already started our work. We are hopeful of connecting the plant to the grid generating 500 MW this month,” RS Sundar, site director at KNPP, told IANS over phone.
Not many, even in Tamil Nadu, would have heard about the small fishing village named Idinthakarai, literally meaning damaged coast, till the villagers there started their protest against the KNPP.
Russia to help in Sindhurakshak fire probe
“India has technological, scientific and financial capabilities to acquire and operate nuclear submarines. Diesel submarines are needed for countries like Russia that have shallow inland seas, or have political constraints, like Japan.”
August 17, 2013
Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the defence industry, said Russia would help India strengthen its defense potential dented by the loss of the INS Sindhurakshak.
Mr Rogozin offered Russian help in investigating the fatal explosion on the submarine INS Sindhurakshak and vowed to expand defense cooperation between the two countries.
“Whatever the outcome [of the Sindhurakshak blast probe], India remains our leading partner, not just only in the off-the-shelf purchases of weapon platforms,” said Mr. Rogozin.
“India is our premier partner for the long haul in co-development of military hardware. We will help India build up its capabilities in this sphere,” Mr. Rogozin told reporters on a visit to Russia’s major nuclear submarine base in Vilyuchinsk, Kamchatka Peninsula, in the Far East, on Friday.
Experts see three ways as to how Russia could help India enhance its submarine fleet strength — which has now been reduced to 13 vessels. Russian shipbuilders have offered to carry out life-extension repairs for the nine Kilo-class submarines in the IN inventory, which have a service life of 25 years with one mid-term repair.
“We think it would be advisable to undertake a second mid-term repair that will add another five to seven or even 10 years to the submarines’ scheduled service life,” Andrei Dyachkov, the then Director General of Sevmash shipyard, told The Hindu earlier this year.
Russia also plans to field its latest Amur-1650 submarines in the IN tender for six new diesel-electric submarines which is due to be floated shortly.
Lithuania criticises Belarus nuclear plant discussions
The presentation of the Astravyets nuclear plant project planned in Belarus on Saturday cannot be considered a public discussion by international standards, says the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry.
Brave Belarus soldiers holding burning stuff to prove their machismo! (wait till they get some nuclear materials 😦 )
Image source ; http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1901840,00.html
Gitana Grigaityte, director of the ministry’s Economic Security Policy Department, says Belarus has not yet answered key questions sent by Lithuania in connection to the power plant, although the United Nations (UN) Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context (Espoo) requires answers by the start of public debates.
Grigaityte said Lithuania finds unacceptable the fact that the event is held in the Belarusian territory, which makes it impossible for Lithuanian society to attend.
“In Lithuania’s opinion, Belarus has not answered key questions from Lithuania,” she said.
According to Grigaityte, Minsk has not provided a proper explanation of the choice of the Astravyets construction site, situated merely 50km from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
Lithuania has not received answers in connection to Belarus’ failure to carry out seismologic tests, although severe earthquakes were registered in the territory in late 1800s and early 1900s, said the diplomat.
Lithuania is also expecting answers about cooling of the nuclear reactor , as under Belarusian design, the reactor should be cooled with water from the River Neris although the site is above river level and 10km away from the river, thus increasing the probability of malfunction of the cooling system.
“We believe that jumping to the next phase of the Espoo Convention and organising public hearings is a hasty and unilateral action on the Belarusian side,” said the head of the department.
Grigaityte recalled that the Espoo Convention Implementation Committee concluded in Geneva in April that “Belarus has violated the Espoo Convention, Lithuania’s demands are grounded and Belarus must respond to the Lithuanian inquiries.”
“The event is organised on Belarusian territory, although Belarus has announced it is intended for Lithuanian society. We believe it restricts the participation of Lithuanian society, and raises questions about the compliance of the event to the Espoo Convention,” Grigaityte further commented.
Earlier this week, the Belarusian Embassy in Vilnius published invitations in the Lithuanian media, inviting Lithuanian citizens to a discussion about the environmental impacts of the power plant.
According to the ads, travel to the event will be free. Lithuanian media was also invited to the event.
Saturday’s event sparked diplomatic clashes last month.
Shortly after the event was announced, the Belarusian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Vilnius and told that “such a decision runs counter to the provisions of the Espoo Convention, restricts the participation of Lithuanian citizens in the events of this kind and does not add constructiveness to the Lithuanian-Belarusian dialogue on the issue of the safety of Astravyets nuclear power plant.“
In response, Minsk shortly summoned Lithuanian Ambassador Evaldas Ignatavicius and “expressed concern” over what Minsk said was “non-constructive attitude” towards the Belarusian proposal to hold discussions on the environmental impact assessment.
Belarus maintains it operates in line with the convention, accusing Lithuania of breaching the spirit of good neighbourhood by ignoring the Belarusian proposals.
The nuclear power plant in Astravyets will be built by Russian company Rosatom.
Belarus plans to have the utility operational in 2020.
Nearly 80 percent increase in hydroelectric production seen in Canada
TORONTO – Ontario Power Generation Inc. says profits increased by 70 per cent in the second quarter due to higher revenue from hydroelectric stations.
The provincially-owned utility earned $73 million in the three months ended June 30, compared with $43 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue totalled $1.2 billion, up from just under $1.1 billion.
OPG said it earned $173 million from nuclear funds, compared with a profit of $110 million the same year-earlier period. Depreciation and amortization costs rose to $242 million from $142 million.
Nuclear funds is money set aside to pay for the safe management of nuclear waste and the cost of decommissioning nuclear plants both now and in the future.
OPG president and chief executive Tom Mitchell said the company recently got the green light to compete in other forms of renewable generation, allowing it to expand into a “new direction.”
“We will apply the same principles for these potential projects as those applied in our current projects and operations. We will work with communities to ensure they understand and support our efforts before, during and after construction and operation,” he said in a statement.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version incorrectly stated the earnings from nuclear funds as a loss. ..[ 🙂 corrected for how long arclight? ]
Nearly 80 percent increase in decommissioning costs in Switzerland after review
Now, a cabinet decision has asserted that there is a risk that utilities may not meet their funding commitments and proposed an additional condition that the funds should exceed estimates by 30% at the time of plant retirement. Given that all the country’s reactors are at least half way through their assumed 50-year allotment, this would mean a huge rise in annual cash contributions.
Image source ; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-grayblock/they-profit-you-pay-the-s_b_2828475.html
16 August 2013
The Swiss cabinet has proposed a raise in targets for waste and decommissioning funds that would lead to a hike of some 76% in annual utility contributions next year. A consultation is being launched this month.
The country has two central funds, one for decommissioning of the country’s five nuclear power reactors, and another for disposal of all their waste. It charges operators set fees each year to make sure there is enough money for those tasks after a 50-year lifespan – an arbitrary time period selected by the cabinet in May 2011.
Investment trajectories to achieve this are revised every five years, with cost estimates changing relative to inflation and the growth of the funds through investment. The last recalculation in November 2011 saw estimated costs rise about 10%.
Now, a cabinet decision has asserted that there is a risk that utilities may not meet their funding commitments and proposed an additional condition that the funds should exceed estimates by 30% at the time of plant retirement. Given that all the country’s reactors are at least half way through their assumed 50-year allotment, this would mean a huge rise in annual cash contributions.
Across all five reactors the sum total of annual decommissioning contributions could rise 78% to CHF100 million ($107 million) per year. Waste contributions could rise 75% to CHF207 million ($223 million) annually. Together, annual contributions to the two funds could rise by 76%.
The Beznau plant would be worst affected because its two reactors are set to reach the age of 50 soonest – in 2019 and 2021. The plant’s annual payments for decommissioning could double from CHF19 million to CHF38 million ($41 million) with waste fund payments going from CHF34 million to CHF 74 million ($79 million).
The ministry said that a consultation on the changes would open this month and that the higher contributions could begin from mid-2014.
Industry reacted through the Swiss Nuclear Forum to sharply criticise the move. The trade association said there was no reason to change the existing rules and pointed out that the Nuclear Energy Act already protects the government from these liabilities, placing in law that utilities must meet all nuclear waste and decommissioning costs.
Researched and written
by World Nuclear News
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/WR_Swiss_utilities_face_waste_hike_1608131.html
Victims of Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident Speak Out. Arnie Gundersen’s Podcast
Published on 16 Aug 2013
Published by MsMilkytheclown1 on Aug 15, 2013
source video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4yKvp…
Thank you MsM 😉
About This Podcast titled If a Tree Falls in the Forest…
This week’s podcast features the testimonies of people living near the Three Mile Island nuclear plant at the time of the accident in 1979. Unlike most of our podcasts which feature scientists and other nuclear experts, today you will be hearing from ordinary citizens who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. These powerful testimonies are available in the NRC archives, but buried under thousands of other documents they rarely see the light of day. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it make a sound? If somebody signs a non-disclosure agreement, were they ever officially harmed? Today we challenge the misconception that nobody was hurt in the Three Mile Island accident, because history is repeating itself at Fukushima Daiichi.
PODCAST TRANSCRIPT available here: http://tinyurl.com/mkbrg8w
RELATED CONTENT
Three Mile Island Witness Testimonies http://tinyurl.com/m7kbeq4
TMI Settlement of Medical Claims Letter http://tinyurl.com/pk6p8yj
Three Myths of Three Mile Island Accident http://tinyurl.com/kc3flna
Nuclear Plant Evacuation Zones, USA http://tinyurl.com/3njhnpg
Epidemiologist Steve Wing Discusses the Increases in Cancer Rates After Three Mile Island Accident (Part 1) http://tinyurl.com/lvy889q
Epidemiologist Steve Wing Discusses the Increases in Cancer Rates After Three Mile Island Accident (Part 2) http://tinyurl.com/mv9hcxd
Auschwitz Concentration Camp Gas Chamber
http://youtu.be/WkMT2h-IJzY
Auschwitz versus Science: a documentary about the gas chambers and crematoria of the holocaust
http://youtu.be/H5mLhoO5hNw
Nazi Concentration Camp – Real Footage
http://youtu.be/joY9wI24OTM
Shocking Footage from Auschwitz Concentration Camp
http://youtu.be/w5WXIF67J2w
Reactor 3 Nuclear Explosion at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant – Global Extermination
http://youtu.be/zGhOW3DLlow
NHK Documentary: Black Rain – Fruitless Data on the A-Bomb Survivors
Published on 16 Aug 2013
Soon after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a black rain containing radioactive materials fell from the sky. No detailed data has ever been released on where this contaminated rain fell, and the extent of this form of radiation. But at the end of 2011, enquiries by a doctor in Nagasaki led to the disclosure that investigators in the 1950s had collected data on some 13,000 people exposed to black rain. Why has this information yet to be released — 67 years after the atomic bombings? And what might we learn from these cases today? Our investigation includes accounts from survivors.
Film” Pandora’s Promise” spews out a stream of untruths,
The movie also illustrates that none of its five layman “converts” to pro-nuke views knows enough about nuclear plants or other energy solutions to evaluate them fairly. They only know the Nuclear Dream.
A Nuclear Submariner Challenges a Pro-Nuclear Film NYT, By ANDREW C. REVKIN, 16 Aug 13 John Dudley Miller, a former nuclear engineering officer in the Navy with a doctorate in social psychology and a long career in journalism, sent this “Your Dot” critique of “Pandora’s Promise,” the new documentary defending nuclear power,
When I saw “Pandora’s Promise,” I didn’t believe a word of it. I served as a submarine nuclear engineering officer for my four-year stint in the Navy years ago. I qualified as an Engineering Officer of the Watch (a guy who’s in charge of the plant and its other technicians during four-hour shifts) on two different sub reactors. I know the truth about reactors, and the movie replaces it with the demonstrably false Nuclear Dream, a just-so mythical story claiming that nukes are safe, clean and cheap…..
the movie – It spews out a stream of untruths, for instance, telling us only that Chernobyl killed56 people. It leaves out that a United Nations World Health Organization agency predicts 16,000 more will die from Chernobyl cancers and that the European Environment Agency estimates 34,000 more. It omits that non-fatalthyroid cancer struck another 6,000, mostly children
Even the movie’s two reactor designers distort truth. Physicist Charles Till claims that fast-breeder reactors are inherently safe. Actually, they’re riskier than ordinary reactors. Hans Bethe, Manhattan Project scientist and Nobel laureate, calculated in 1956 that if a breeder’s liquid sodium coolant leaked out, it could melt in 40 seconds, become a small unintended atom bomb and spontaneously explode. (Modern designers believe breeders are more likely to melt down like Three Mile Island than to explode like Chernobyl.)
The breeder reactors EBR-1 in Idaho and Fermi-1 near Detroit partially melted. Several breeders have suffered sodium coolant fires, because sodium automatically burns in air and explodes in water. Continue reading
Tokyo nuclear company withdraws libel suit against freelance writer
NUCLEAR INDUSTRY BUSINESSMAN WITHDRAWS LIBEL SUIT AGAINST FREELANCER http://en.rsf.org/japan-nuclear-industry-businessman-16-08-2013,45056.html REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS WELCOMES THE DECISION BY SHIRO SHIRAKAWA, THE HEAD OF THE NUCLEAR security systems company New Tech, to withdraw a libel suit against freelance journalist Minoru Tanaka. A Tokyo court has accepted the withdrawal, announced on 12 August.
“This libel suit was an attempt by an influential member of Japan’s nuclear industrial complex, known as the ‘nuclear village,’ to harass and intimidate Tanaka into silence and self-censorship,” Reporters Without Borders said.
“We are pleased that it did not work but we continue to be concerned for other journalists who try to cover the sensitive issue of Japan’s nuclear industry. There are still too many cases of reporters being pressured or censored when they try to provide information about the Fukushima disaster and its aftermath.
“The damages award Tanaka was facing if found guilty of libelling Shirakawa was clearly out of all proportion. We urge the courts to reject such ‘gag suits’ or ‘SLAPPs’ if they continue to be filed, and to propose proportionate alternatives such as the publication of a response.”
Shirakawa sued Tanaka, 52, over a December 2011 article for the weekly Shukan Kinyobiheadlined “The last big fixer, Shiro Shirakawa, gets his share of the TEPCO nuclear cake” – TEPCO being the owner of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant that suffered meltdowns after a tsunami in March 2011.
Using information in the public domain, the article accused Shirakawa of making a lot of money by acting as an intermediary between TEPCO, construction companies, politicians such as the leading parliamentarian Kamei Shizuka, and even clandestine organizations.
Ever since the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster, freelance journalists who cover the nuclear industry have had their access to information restricted and have, for example, been prevented from covering anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Reporters Without Borders issued several press releases condemning the judicial harassment of Tanaka, who was sued for 67 million yen (600,000 euros) in damages.
October walk: No Drone Spying in Maine
Space For Peace ,http://space4peace.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/maine-drone-peace-walk-schedule.html 14 August 13 We invite you to consider joining the October 10-19 Preserve our Privacy: No Drone Spying in Maine peace walk. The walk is being organized by the Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home and Maine Veterans for Peace.
James Hansen’s pro nuclear video is false, a distortion of reality
A Nuclear Submariner Challenges a Pro-Nuclear Film NYT, By ANDREW C. REVKIN, 16 Aug 13 “……Now to the Hansen video. Untrained and inexperienced in nuclear engineering, he nevertheless claims that so-called Generation III reactors will be passively safe. If electrical power is lost, they will simply cool down on their own. Maybe. Maybe not.
Four Westinghouse AP1000 (Gen III) nuke plants are now being built (two in Georgia, two in South Carolina). But had the Fukushima plants all been AP1000s, they would have melted too, because they can only go without power forthree days, and it took 11 days to get power turned back on in all four reactors.
Worse yet, no one ever built a demonstration AP1000 nuke plant to prove they really are passively safe. Small demo plants often reveal design errors that can then be corrected before full-size plants are built. Without one, we’re investing $24 billion without knowing whether these four plants will ever work as promised. How rational is that?
Last, the ultimate inherently safe reactors the nuclear industry wants to build are the same liquid sodium fast breeder reactors that can explode or melt down. Good luck with that.
So I urge you, don’t believe “Pandora’s Promise,” James Hansen, or the nuclear industry. Their views are false, one-sided, and so contrary to reality that it is fair for me (now a Ph.D. social psychologist and journalist) to call them delusions — shared, motivated distortions of reality………. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/a-nuclear-submariner-challenges-a-pro-nuclear-film/?_r=0
President Obama finally allows return of solar panels to the White House
Finally: Obama Green Lights Solar Panels on White House
Details are not yet final, but President Obama has finally allowed retrofitting the White House roof to allow for solar panels. No, this is not a plot from HBO’s hit series Veep: it is finally happening. The final total of panels will range between 20 and 50 solar panels according to Think Progress and the Washington Post—perhaps enough to power a few flat screen TVs or power the equivalent of 15 seconds of flight on Air Force One.
It is a step that is surely attracting all kinds of buzz in and outside of Washington, DC, one either seen as a token effort, a sign of leadership on sustainability, or as a yawner. The installation falls on the heels of a 2010 promise Obama had made to install a rooftop solar system. http://www.enn.com/green_building/article/46324
Democrats AND Republicans want tax reform to further renewable energy
Raul Ruiz urges tax reforms to benefit renewable energy Aug. 16, 2013 Erica Felci The Desert Sun PALM DESERT — Calling renewable energy development a “critical area of economic growth,” Rep. Raul Ruiz on Friday called on his fellow lawmakers to reform the federal tax code in a way that benefits wind, solar and other green industries.
The Palm Desert Democrat joined two fellow representatives — Republican Jon Runyan of New Jersey and Democrat Earl Blumenauer of Oregon — in a letter that was sent to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
The letter said the United States saw a 34 percent decrease in renewable energy investments last year because of “policy uncertainty.” To stop that, officials are urging the committee to include “policies that promote America’s renewable energy economy” as part of much-discussed tax reform.
Such change could benefit the Coachella Valley and the rest of Ruiz’s district, which hosts geothermal, solar and wind developments from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea. It’s also home to the the Riverside East Solar Zone that runs along Interstate 10 from Joshua Tree National Park to Blythe.
The letter was signed by 60 Democrats and Republicans.
“The race to develop renewable energy is widely considered one of the most important areas of economic growth for the 21st century,” the letter states. “Maintaining policies in the tax code that promote investment in and deployment of renewable energy technologies will help ensure that the American consumer continues to benefit from renewable energy innovations while also reaping the benefits of a diverse energy economy.”….. http://www.mydesert.com/article/20130816/BUSINESS0302/308160004/Ruiz-urges-tax-reforms-benefit-renewable-energy?nclick_check=1
Dental X rays a serious public health cancer risk
Radiation safety of dental X-rays questioned Straight.com, by ALEX ROSLIN on AUG 14, 2013“………..In a study in the journal Cancer last year, 1,433 people with meningioma were found to be two times more likely to have had a “bitewing” dental X-ray as those without the illness. Those who reported having a panorex scanning dental X-ray (which gives a two-dimensional panoramic view of the mouth) before age 10 were 4.9 times more likely to have meningioma.
Meningioma is the most common form of primary brain tumour (tumours that start in the brain). Women get it more than twice as often as men.
Other studies have linked dental X-rays to thyroid cancer, breast cancer (in women who hadn’t worn a shielded apron), saliva-gland tumours, and glioma (a cancerous type of brain and spinal tumour).
Pregnant women who got a dental X-ray were three times more likely to deliver a low-birth-weight baby (weighing less than 2.5 kilograms), according to a 2004 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dental X-rays are the most common way Americans are exposed to human-made radiation, the 2012 Cancer study said. Continue reading
1 This Month.
5 January -Webinar-What is Trump’s Golden Dome?
REGISTER AT Massachusetts Peace Action Education
New book – https://www.amazon.com/dp/1923372157?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
-
Archives
- December 2025 (286)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (377)
- September 2025 (258)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
- June 2025 (348)
- May 2025 (261)
- April 2025 (305)
- March 2025 (319)
- February 2025 (234)
- January 2025 (250)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 