nuclear-news

Just Don’t Mention (or Measure) the Pu (Plutonium)

Cs-134 usually appears (at first) in similar amounts as Cs-137, as both are fission wastes………. With regard impact on human health cesium–134 (Cs-134) is extremely serious along with cesium-137 (Cs-137) the longer lived isotope which also present on Cumbrian beaches

 By mariannewildart, Radiation Free Lakeland 30th Nov 2024, https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2024/11/30/just-dont-mention-or-measure-the-pu-plutonium/
Josh MacAlister MP for Sellafield (sorry Whitehaven and Workington) bigs up the “Good” status of Seascale and “Excellent” status of St Bees bathing water sites.

The bad news is that the criteria for bathing water quality in the UK does not include radioactive pollution – a bad case of the three wise monkeys “see no evil..”

Our own citizen science findings indicate radioactive wastes are a now an insidious and homogeneous part of West Cumbria’s beaches courtesy of the nuclear industry’s routine and accidental discharges to the Irish Sea.

Our own surveys and testing has shown that Caesium 134 is present along with Americium 241. Cs-134 has a short half life of only 2 years which is counter to the already disingenuous claims that the discharges (some very long lived) are “historic..” Cs-134 usually appears (at first) in similar amounts as Cs-137, as both are fission wastes. This implies that this Cs-134 was produced in a nuclear reactor about eight years ago. With regard impact on human health cesium–134 (Cs-134) is extremely serious along with cesium-137 (Cs-137) the longer lived isotope which also present on Cumbrian beaches. In nature, caesium exists only as a non-radioactive (or stable) isotope known as cesium-133. Americium 241 does not exist in nature and is a decay product of Plutonium.

The UK Health Security Agency have stated the risk of the public encountering a radioactive particle is “very low” but this is contested . In reality the ongoing risks are unacceptable and set to increase with new development plans such as proposed new nuclear and a Geological Disposal Facility for heat generating nuclear wastes both of which would cause likely disruption to the fragile Cumbrian Mud Patch through subsidence and induced earthquakes.

Campaigners point out that children and young women of childbearing age are most at risk of health impacts from encountering a radioactive particle. “Inadvertent ingestion of a particle will result in the absorption to blood of a small proportion of the radionuclide content of the particle. The subsequent retention of radionuclides in body organs and tissues presents a potential risk of the development of cancer.” Health risks from radioactive particles on Cumbrian beaches near the Sellafield nuclear site by John D Harrison et al 2023.

December 2, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | environment, UK