Helicopters testing for radiation in Washington DC
Helicopters to check for radiation in D.C. http://www.wtop.com/41/3172518/Helicopters-to-check-
for-radiation-in-DC Hank Silverberg, WASHINGTON, 27 Dec 12 – An unusual number of low-flying helicopters will be in the Washington region throughout the next two weeks checking for radiation.
The helicopters will fly a 70-square-mile grid around D.C. and will fly 150 feet above the ground through Jan. 11. They will take baseline levels of naturally occurring radiation. The helicopters could fly as fast as 80 mph.
The mission from the National Nuclear Security Administration is part of an effort to that would allow the FBI and other law enforcement to warn the public about higher radiation levels should there be an accident or terrorist incident involving nuclear material.
There are two nuclear power plants within 90 miles of D.C. They are Calvert Cliffs in in Lusby, Md. and North Anna in Virginia’s Louisa County.
Additionally, freight trains travel right through the D.C. just a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.
Concern has been expressed in the past about a rail accident involving hazardous material though it’s not clear whether the trains ever carry anything that might be radioactive.
Radiation exposure to residents of Treasure Island, USA
Alarming Radiation Levels Found on Treasure Island (includes Video –
on cancers in former residents) )
The Navy’s own data suggests that island residents were at risk of
radiation exposure.
East Bay Express, By Ashley Bates, 27 Dec 12, Navy officials have repeatedly downplayed the risks of
radiation exposure to current and former residents on Treasure Island.
But data from the US Navy shows that measurements taken in former
residential areas of the island revealed pockets of alarmingly high
radiation levels. The data, which the Express obtained as a result of
a public records request, also raises questions as to whether former
residents were, in fact, exposed to high amounts of radiation and
whether soil on the island can be sufficiently cleaned up for the
massive “eco-friendly” housing and commercial development planned for
the former Navy base…..
Despite the newly released data, much is still unknown about the
radiation levels on Treasure Island. Continue reading
A Faustian bargain, uranium mining’s radioactive pollution of groundwater
A Decades-Old Deal With Uranium Miners Is Causing Trouble For The EPA Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica | Dec. 26, 2012, GILLETTE, Wyo. — On a lonely stretch at the edge of the Great Plains, rolling grassland presses up against a crowning escarpment called the Pumpkin Buttes. The land appears bountiful, but it is stingy, straining to produce enough sustenance for the herds of cattle and sheep on its arid prairies.
“It’s a tough way to make a living,” said John Christensen, whose family has worked this private expanse, called Christensen Ranch, 
for more than a century.
Christensen has made ends meet by allowing prospectors to tap into minerals and oil and gas beneath his bucolic hills. But from the start, it has been a Faustian bargain.
As dry as this land may be, underground, vast reservoirs hold billions of gallons of water suitable for drinking, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Yet every day injection wells pump more than 200,000 gallons of toxic and radioactive waste from uranium mining into Christensen’s aquifers. Continue reading
Drinking water threatened as EPA allows uranium miners to inject radioactive wastes into groundwater
Environmental groups say the EPA should not be letting mining companies write their own rules.
Similar disputes are erupting across the country.
“This is a health issue as much as a water supply issue,”
A Decades-Old Deal With Uranium Miners Is Causing Trouble For The EPA Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica | Dec. 26, 2012, GILLETTE, Wyo.“…….The problems and pressures the EPA is facing at Christensen Ranch are not unique.
With uranium mining booming, the agency has received a mounting number of requests for aquifer exemptions in recent years. So far, EPA records show, the agency has issued at least 40 exemptions for uranium mines across the country and is considering several more. Two mines are expanding operations near Christensen Ranch.
In several cases, the EPA has struggled to balance imposing water protections with accommodating the industry’s needs.
In South Dakota, where Powertech Uranium is seeking permits for a new mine in the Black Hills, state regulations bar the deep injection wells typically used to dispose of mining waste. The EPA is weighing whether to allow Powertech to use what’s called a Class 5 well u2014 a virtually unregulated and unmonitored shallow dumping system normally used for non-toxic waste u2014 instead….. Continue reading
No control over radiation-contaminated products
The potential danger comes, however, from the cumulative effect of proximity to radiation, particularly over time and in relation to other contaminants. The precise degree of that danger has not yet been definitively determined for low-level radiation, such as that contained in commonplace goods and materials…..
Because the amount of tainted metals in circulation is unknown, the cumulative overall health effect — now and over time — is impossible to calculate. Whatever it is, there is little debate that unnecessary exposure to radiation is best avoided.
“There is no threshold of exposure below which low levels of ionizing radiation can be demonstrated to be harmless or beneficial,”
Recycled radioactive metal contaminates consumer products: “It’s your worst nightmare,” Engineering Evil, October 20, 2012
2009 report posted for filing Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com I don’t believe a single thing has been done about this crisis since this report. Not even a simple mention in the nightly news.
Thousands of everyday products and materials containing radioactive metals are surfacing across the United States and around the world.
Common kitchen cheese graters, reclining chairs, women’s handbags and tableware manufactured with contaminated metals have been identified, some after having been in circulation for as long as a decade. So have fencing wire and fence posts, shovel blades, elevator buttons, airline parts and steel used in construction.
A Scripps Howard News Service investigation has found that — because of haphazard screening, an absence of oversight and substantial disincentives for businesses to report contamination — no one knows how many tainted goods are in circulation in the United States.
But thousands of consumer goods and millions of pounds of unfinished metal and its byproducts have been found to contain low levels of radiation, and experts think the true amount could be much higher, perhaps by a factor of 10. Continue reading
Doubts on uranium market’s future add to environment fears in Virginia
Charles Ebinger, the director of the energy security initiative at the Brookings Institution, a research center in Washington. thinks, though, that the United States is moving away from nuclear energy as cheap natural gas and flat electricity demand make nuclear power less competitive. That makes it tougher to argue in favor of the mine, said Ebinger, who’s a supporter of nuclear energy
Proposed Coles Hill uranium mine: Buried treasure or hidden threat? By Sean Cockerham and John Murawski | McClatchy Newspapers
CHATHAM, Va. 23 Dec 12, — “….. pitting neighbor against neighbor and North Carolinians against Virginians. North Carolina is only about 20 miles from the proposed uranium mine and residents, public officials and lawmakers there worry that a catastrophic release of radioactive waste could poison Kerr Lake, the drinking water source for more than 118,000 North Carolinians, as well as contaminate the fishing- and recreation-rich Roanoke River as far east as Pamlico Sound.
“My concern is the catastrophic impact it could have on North Carolina’s water, and it could be major,” said state Rep. Mitch Gillespie, a McDowell County Republican. “This is brand new for North Carolina.” Continue reading
Fukushima radiation’s slow journey to USA and China’s coasts
More Fukushima nuclear pollution to hit U.S. starting in 2015 — Study: Impact strength of Cesium-137 on West Coast to be as high as 4 PERCENT http://enenews.com/report-nuclear-pollution-from-fukushima-to-hit-u-s-in-2015-impact-strength-of-cesium-137-on-west-coast-is-as-high-as-4-percent-due-to-strong-currents
December 20th, 2012 Follow-up to: Ocean Absorbed 79 Percent Of Fukushima Fallout
Source: Science China Earth Sciences
Authors: GuiJun Han, Wei Li, HongLi Fu, XueFeng Zhang, XiDong Wang, XinRong Wu, LianXin Zhang
Date: November 2012 Continue reading
Great lakes nuclear threat is greater than all its other pollution problems
Nuclear power: The ultimate near shore threat to the Great Lakes? Great Lakes Echo
DEC 21 2012 GARY WILSON
Commentary
“I hope you rethink your really scary plan to bury radioactive waste located only half a mile from Lake Huron…”
That’s a concerned citizen responding to a Canadian nuclear power company’s proposal to store radioactive waste underground near Lake Huron for 100,000 years.
The best-known near shore threats to the Great Lakes are raw sewage and algae blooms. Both receive considerable attention from government agencies and accounts about them are regularly reported in the popular media.
The threat posed by the nuclear power plants that dot the region could easily trump both. It may be the ultimate near shore threat. Continue reading
“Uranium widows country” – prolonged task of cleaning up Navajo land
Uranium cleanup on Navajo Nation complicated by scope, history of problem 19, 2012 By MARYANN BATLLE Cronkite News WASHINGTON – For seven weeks this fall, workers and scientists labored from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., six days a week, digging up and hauling off thousands of cubic yards of uranium-tainted soil in Cove, Ariz., and sealing what remained.
The $1.5 million project by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was an emergency measure to clean up two former uranium transfer stations because of their proximity to a day school, a house – which sat on top of one station – and a highway on the Navajo Nation.
The goal was to remove the immediate threat of uranium contamination, stabilize the soil and keep uranium from becoming windborne.
It’s a stopgap measure on two tainted sites among at least 500 – possibly more than 2,000 – that pose a threat to people on the Navajo reservation that spans parts of Utah, New Mexico and Northern Arizona.
More than six decades after the first mines opened on Navajo lands, it is still unclear how many sites need to be cleaned up, how many people may be suffering from the effects of uranium exposure and what can be done to contain all the hazardous material in these communities – if that’s even possible.
What everyone can agree on is that overcoming the legacy of uranium mining will take a long, long time.
“They say it’s a widow community,” Eugene Esplain said of Cove, where this fall’s cleanup took place. “So many men have died from the impacts of uranium mining.”….. http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2012/12/uranium-cleanup-on-navajo-nation-complicated-by-scope-history-of-problem/
3000 km away, and nearly 30 years later Chernobyl’s radiation is a BIT better
While other areas of Europe, such as Scandinavia, continue to record substantial levels of radioactivity in stock animal populations, the UK has provided happy evidence that the impact of Chernobyl radiation is diminishing.
British Sheep vs. Chernobyl Radiation 18 December 2012 by Stephanie Swift, http://www.scilogs.com/mmmbitesizescience/british-sheep-and-chernobyl-radiation/
The explosion of reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 is widely regarded as the worst radiation disaster in human history. The radioactive fallout spread from Northern Ukraine throughout Northern Europe, dispersing large quantities of radioactive elements, including two caesium isotopes, Cs-134 and Cs-137. Continue reading
Lands subsiding in Japan, following earthquake 2011
Japan Officials: Ground subsidence spreading after quake — Concern about sinking buildings being damaged — Only an inch can jeopardize stability http://enenews.com/japan-officials-ground-subsidence-is-spreading-after-quake-concern-about-sinking-buildings-being-damaged-only-an-inch-can-jeopardize-stability-video
December 18th, 2012
Title: Quake-caused subsidence spreads
Source: NHK WORLD English-
Date: Dec. 17, 2012
The Environment Ministry says nearly 6,000 square kilometers of land across Japan have subsided by more than 2 centimeters in the last fiscal year. […]
This level is judged to have a potential impact on buildings’ stability.
The ministry says Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture sank deepest by 73.8 centimeters, followed by Ichikawa in Chiba by 30.9 centimeters [Fukushima Prefecture NOT tested]
The ministry officials say the subsidence is attributable to last year’s March 11th earthquake. They have expressed concerns over the spread of subsidence and further damage to buildings.
100% of Fukushima white rockfish had cesium levels, November-December
Cesium measured from 100% of Fukushima white rockfish in November and December http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/12/cesium-measured-from-100-of-fukushima-white-rockfish-in-november-and-december/
by Mochizuki December 17th, 2012
On 9/9/2012, Fukushima Diary reported white rockfish (Shiromebaru) tends to accumulate cesium. http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/09/85-of-fukushima-rockfish-exceeds-safety-limit-in-cesium/
According to Fukushima prefectural government, high level of cesium was measured from 100% (19 of 19) of the samples taken in November and December from offshore Fukushima. 84% (16/19) of them exceeded the government’s safety limit of 100Bq/Kg.
The highest reading was 1,731 Bq/Kg (11/30/2012), the second highest reading was 1,225 Bq/Kg (12/8/2012).
South Carolina’s radiation pollution increasing, but no action taken
Rising radiation at SC nuclear dump prompts cleanup talk but no action The State, 16 Dec 12, By SAMMY FRETWELL – sfretwell@thestate.com COLUMBIA, SC — Radioactive pollution is getting worse on parts of South Carolina’s nuclear-waste dump near Barnwell, but state regulators say cleaning up the contaminated groundwater isn’t in their plan.
Tritium continues to exceed federal safe drinking-water standards in and around the 41-year-old burial ground that has come to symbolize South Carolina’s historic willingness to accept the nation’s garbage. In some spots tritium levels are higher today than they were fiveyears ago…….
Read more here:
http://www.thestate.com/2012/12/16/2557919/rising-radiation-at-sc-nuclear.html#.UM9tJuR9JLs#storylink=cpy
Cesium in mushroom, wild boar – Japan
25,550 Bq/Kg of cesium from Matsutake mushroom, 10,980 Bq/Kg from wild boar from Minamisoma http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/12/25550-bqkg-of-cesium-from-matsutake-mushroom-10980-bqkg-from-wild-boar-from-minamisoma/ by Mochizuki on December 13th, 2012 ·
Minamisoma city measured cesium from 674 among 1,243 samples for self-consumption.
The test was conducted this October and the result was published on 11/6/2012.
The highest reading was 25,550 Bq/Kg from Matsutake mushroom, the second highest reading was 10,980 Bq/Kg from the meat of a wild boar. Wild boar eats mushroom.
Iori MochizukiUSA’s abandoned uranium mines – need for federal funded cleanup
Congressmen press uranium mine cleanups http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/politics/congressmen-press-uranium-mine-cleanups 06 Dec 2012, ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Two members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation are pushing for a House vote on legislation that would free up federal funding to clean up abandoned uranium mines.
U.S. Reps. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., say House
approval is needed to get the bill to the president’s desk. Pearce and
Lujan spelled out their request in a letter to House leaders on
Wednesday.
The legislation was introduced by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. The
Senate has already voted unanimously in favor of the bill.
Under the Abandoned Mine Land program, the federal government collects
revenue from coal companies to fund abandoned mine cleanup. Each state receives a share of the money, but the program currently restricts the
ability of states to use the money for cleaning up
1 This Month
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- June 2026 (129)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
-
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 