“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
Mutations in animals following Chernobyl nuclear disaster
“The amount of mutations in people and animals grew sharply after the catastrophe,” states the explanation accompanying the display.
Japan Times column on nuclear mutations: Professor seeing ‘increase in negative effects’ from Fukushima since last year — Report of insect with leg growing from head (PHOTO) http://enenews.com/japan-times-column-nuclear-mutations-professor-increase-negative-effects-report-insect-leg-growing-head-photo December 9th, 2012
Title: Chernobyl factored in the fall of a corrupt regime — Fukushima may too
Source: The Japan Times
Author: ROGER PULVERS
Date: Dec. 9, 2012
There are approximately 7,000 exhibits in Kiev’s Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum. (The location of the nuclear plant that exploded on April 26, 1986 is spelled this way in Ukrainian.) Continue reading
Canadian govt abandoning environmental protection
When yet another omnibus budget bill passed through Parliament this week, it ushered in a new era in Canadian history. The “Navigable Waters Protection Act” no longer protects “Water”. The “Fisheries Act” no longer protects “Fish”. The “Environmental Assessment Act” no longer requires “Environmental Assessments” be done before important decisions are made. If you are looking to federal environmental law and policy to protect Canada’s environment, you’re a dinosaur. A throwback. A relic of the 20th Century.
“No need to worry,” the federal government says, “the provinces will protect you now.”
Everything’s changed, Northumberland View ca Dec 06, 2012 – Krystyn Tully, Waterkeeper.ca Weekly“……. It’s no secret that the Government of Canada’s been undergoing some kind of post-environmentalism re-envisioning exercise. You’ve seen the stories about massive layoffs in federal environmental departments, heard about scientists being “muzzled”, listened to members of parliament debating sweeping changes to federal laws.
The exercise is over. The “new normal” is here.
For the last thirty years, Canada was a rule-of-law kind of country. Our environmental laws spelled out what you can’t do (pollute or block a river, for example). They spelled out how decisions had to be made (major projects were reviewed by independent panels, with input from qualified experts, for example). Those who wanted to develop or dump on the water had to prove to a decision-maker that their actions would not harm other people’s abilities to safely swim, drink, or fish those same waters. With a few notable exceptions, the federal rules were generally the same across Canada.
This is no longer true. Continue reading
Debate over nuclear power plant on the shores of Lake Ontario
Nuclear power debated: Darlington plant’s critics line up at hearing, Macleans,
by Nick Taylor-Vaisey , December 3, 2012 Hope Fellowship Church. It sits on Bloor Street in Courtice, Ont., a small town east of Oshawa, and it’ll be packed with people for the next few days. That’s because the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is holding hearings about the future of the nuclear power plant five kilometres away, nestled against the shores of Lake Ontario. Many don’t much care for the nuclear plant, and they hope to throw a wrench into proposals to keep that plant chugging for years to come. Some are even suggesting Parliament should investigate various elements of nuclear safety. Others support the plant, and intend to tell the commission as much.
What’s on the table, specifically? Ontario Power Generation, the crown corporation that manages the province’s nuclear plants, wants to refurbish the plant, extend its licence until the end of 2014, and renew its waste management facility’s licence, too. The CNSC hearings are part of that application process. The commission received an abnormally high number of interventions, many of which were submitted by individuals, and it was forced delay hearings by several weeks. (By the way, you can request a copy of interventions at the CNSC website. Why they’re not available for download is puzzling.)
Who is opposed? Continue reading
Church rock uranium radiation disaster – never ending tragedy
The Curse of the Yellow Powder, Bacon’s Rebellion, by Rose Jenkins December 2, 2012 Is it possible to restore a landscape damaged by uranium? Ask the Navajo in New Mexico.
This fall, near Teddy Nez’s house on the Navajo reservation near Gallup, N.M., men in earth-moving equipment were scraping away the topsoil, up to three feet deep, which had been contaminated by radioactivity from abandoned uranium mines. In earlier phases of this project, starting in 2007, crews had torn out 100-year-old junipers and piñon pines and had clawed earth away from the remainingtrees, which weakened them, even after replacement soil was trucked in. The machines had flayed hillsides, whose cover of flowering shrubs and fragrant herbs has yet to grow back. “It looks like a B-52 hit it,” Nez told me, recalling an image from his service in Vietnam.
On our way to his house, Nez pointed out a notch in a bank of yellow grassland at the head of an arroyo. That’s where the Church Rock uranium mill tailings dam broke in 1979, releasing over 1,000 tons of radioactive wastes and millions of gallons of highly acidic water into the Puerco River, an intermittent stream that flows toward the Colorado River. The Church Rock dam failure was the largest radioactive release in U.S. history, by volume — larger than the Three Mile Island disaster the same year.
Nez’s house was upstream of the breached dam but the ground around it was contaminated by dust drifting off of the mountainous piles of waste rock from two nearby uranium mines, which have been out of production for almost 30 years. Nez believes that the continuous exposure has made him and his family sick. His whole family suffers from respiratory problems, he says — himself, his five children, and his seven grandchildren.
For years, he and his neighbors fought for a clean-up, he says, but nothing happened. Finally, in 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) informed them that their situation was an emergency. Radiation levels at Nez’s home measured up to ten times higher than normal background levels for the area……
what I saw in Navajo country made me wonder how much you can really clean up after uranium, if contaminants get into the soil, the water, the air, the plants, the animals……http://www.baconsrebellion.com/2012/12/the-curse-of-the-yellow-powder.html
Radioactive material below Louisiana’s giant sinkhole
Newspaper: Officials concerned about radioactive material below giant Louisiana sinkhole http://enenews.com/newspaper-controversy-over-radioactive-material-stored-below-giant-louisiana-sinkhole November 27th, 2012
Update Here: People need to know if radioactive waste is coming up from the ground in area of giant sinkhole -Legal Expert
Title: Radioactive material handling probed
Author: DAVID J. MITCHELL
Date: November 27, 2012
State officials are investigating how Texas Brine Co. LLC handled naturally occurring radioactive material [NORM] in Assumption Parish — where a large sinkhole was found Aug. 3 — and whether it was illegally disposed of inside the Napoleonville Dome in the mid-1990s. […]
Texas Brine officials, in a statement last week, said they did not put NORM in the caverns […]
The statement contradicts detailed comments from company officials on Aug. 10 that a small amount of NORM was disposed of in the Napoleonville Dome […]
Sonny Cranch, spokesman for Texas Brine, said last week that officials “misspoke” then in their attempt to respond to questions about NORM and that it was never put in the cavern.
Statements by Texas Brine VP Bruce Martin
“We submitted a request to DNR to place this material, this normally occurring radioactive material, that was actually about a little bit less than a cubic yard, to place it back in the well […] We did that work. That material was solid dirt, dirt with some NORM in it, and it was placed in the bottom of the well, and it would be my guess and firm belief that that’s where it sits today.”
The dirt had a radioactivity of 20 to 40 micro-rems per hour
Watch an expert discuss radioactivity around the sinkhole here
Need to remember that coal ash, too, contains radioactive dust
NIRPC committee wants radiation study in The Pines Duneland Community.com November 24, 2012 Lauri Harvey Keagle A Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission Environmental committee wants the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate radiation levels in The Pines after hearing concerns from residents
over coal ash from a facility in their community. Continue reading
Highest ever radiation in wild boar in Iwaki, japan
33,000 Bq/Kg from wild boar in Iwaki city, “The highest measurement ever” http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/11/33000-bqkg-from-wild-boar-in-iwaki-city-the-highest-measurement-ever/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FukushimaDiary+%28Fukushima+Diary%29
by Mochizuki November 21st, 2012 · On 11/20/2012, Fukushima prefecture announced they measured 33,000 Bq/kg of cesium from wild boar in Iwaki city. It was the highest
measurement ever.
Prefectural government commented they are not sure about the reason.
They measured higher than 100 Bq/Kg from 5 among 16 samples, which were wild boar (Sus scrofa), spot‐billed duck (Anas poecilorhyncha), mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) and Japanese deer (Cervus nippon).
Role of Fukushima insects in spreading radiation?
Are radioactive insects spreading Fukushima contamination from lake bottoms across the land? Scientist: They grow underwater then fly out & die everywhere http://enenews.com/are-radioactive-insects-spreading-cesium-from-lake-bottoms-out-across-the-land-scientist-they-grow-underwater-then-fly-out-and-die-everywhere
November 21st, 2012
Title: Fukushima Update: Radioactive Fish, Conflicts of Interest, and Filtered Vents
Source: ScienceBlogs (A National Geographic partner)
Author: Greg Laden
Date: Nov. 21, 2012
Highly Radioactive Fish Have Been Found…
I have a hypothesis that explains many of these observations. Fish like trout, salmon, and char eat, among other things, insects on the surface, gorging on hatches. A hatch is a large number of insects flying around and spending time over water, or often, just falling into the water, after emerging from a body of water where they spent an aquatic phase. I’ve written before about the role that insects such as dragonflies and lake flies serve the role of moving nutrients from their “final” resting place at the bottom of ponds and lakes, out across the landscape. These animals start off as an egg, and then turn into their adult form underwater, accumulating nutrients …. and cesium? …. as they grow. Then they fly out of the water and die everywhere. Or, are eaten by selected species of fish. From clay-rich lake bottom, where radioactive cesium can accumulate in sufficient density to disqualify bottom feeders from human consumption, to the mouths of trout, salmon and char. I don’t know if the Japanese researchers are thinking about it this way, but I hope it is given some thought.
See also: Japan Times: Time bomb in Tokyo metropolitan area — Experts warn of accumulating Fukushima contamination — Potential disaster at Japan’s 2nd largest lake
1 This Month
26 April – Chernobyl: Inside the Meltdown airs on National Geographic on Sunday 26th April from 4pm
29 April – Nuclear Expert Webinar #1 – Radiation Impacts on Families with Mary Olson and Cindy Folkers
- 12:15 PM MT – 1:45 PM MT
- Location: Virtual – REGISTER TODAY
4 May -West Suburban Peace Coalition to discuss Iran war at May Educational Forum
Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 8:00 PM Central Standard Time
Title: : How Trump’s Narrative Tries to Shape the Reality of the War on Iran.
Contact Walt Zlotow, zlotow@hotmail.com 630 442 3045 for further information
14 May – online event From Bombs to Data Centres: the Face of Nuclear Colonialism
Pine Ridge Uranium is the real threat, not Tehran- Tell Burgum: Stop the Extraction.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/2352741955560
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
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