The Watchdog: Nuclear Regulatory Commission flunks this public records test
By Dave Lieber The Dallas Morning News, 16 Aug 22,
I am a Three Mile Island baby.
What I mean is I was in college in 1979 when America’s first major nuclear plant accident occurred. I was 100 miles away. Had things gotten bad, and the wind changed …
Since then I’ve studied nuclear evacuation zones and how they are supposed to work.
That’s why I filed a federal Freedom of Information request one year ago seeking records of a June 7, 2021, fire inside the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant. The reactor is outside the city limits of Glen Rose, 60 miles southwest of downtown Dallas.
I wanted to test the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s response to an open records request. How forthcoming would this important but often overlooked federal agency be?
The answer is in. The NRC failed The Watchdog’s test. They ignored my request for a full year. It wasn’t until I contacted them last week and reminded that I had a year-old request that was unfilled that they reacted. Otherwise, I’m fairly certain that my request would have gone unanswered forever.
Grade? I give the NRC an “F” for this.
Original request
When I made the request on Aug. 23, 2021, some of the facts about the fire were already publicly known. There was a fire in the plant’s main transformer that was put out by the plant’s fire department. External fire departments were not called in.
After that, the plant’s Unit 2 was shut down for two weeks for repairs, and then it went back online.
Dallas Morning News reporter Marin Wolf did an excellent job covering the event in two stories.
What I didn’t know a year ago was that there would be a war between Russia and Ukraine, and that nuclear power plants would be used as strategic points of combat………………………………
Evacuation plans
The last study I made of the Comanche Peak evacuation plans was in 2011. I studied hundreds of pages of evacuation plans I received from the NRC through the Freedom of Information Act. Little details were somewhat alarming.
In the event of an evacuation, records stated that pets were not allowed in the “reception centers” outside the evacuation zones.
“Where possible, shelter livestock,” the plan stated. “Leave them with food and water.”
More advice: “Keep your car’s vents and windows closed while driving within 10 miles of the power plant. If you use your car air conditioning, set it on ‘inside’ or ‘maximum’ so it does not pull in outside air.”
“Residents are also advised to communicate with neighbors personally, rather than clogging phone lines.”
How would that happen if you’re in your car, with the vents closed, driving away?
It’s clear to me that chaos would ensue.
A bad battery
Four months after my initial FOIA request, I sent the NRC a note with the subject line “Missing in Action.”
“Hello, I’m wondering what happened to my August 2021 FOIA request — NRC-2021-000233.”
I received an acknowledgement of my letter — but no records.
Obviously, this could have gone on forever. Did the NRC forget me?
Finally, last week, I revealed my experiment to the NRC in a note: “It wasn’t so much that I was interested in the information as I was testing your obedience to the FOIA law. Well, the test is over.”
Only then did I receive 45 pages of records from the NRC’s regional office in Arlington.
Flipping through, I see the August 2021 fire is barely mentioned. The package does not contain any incident reports, which I had requested. The records sent to The Watchdog are about post-fire inspections.
One “non-cited violation” found that operators of the plant, which is owned by Vistra Energy, “failed to maintain batteries associated with the steam generator fill pumps.” Those pumps are part of the process used to create steam, which is converted into energy that ultimately yields electric power.
One battery was found to be dead, and the battery charger was missing, the inspection report stated.
That single violation was described in the report as being “of very low safety significance.”
Note that I requested any incident reports on the 2021 fire, but in the 45 pages, the word “fire” only appears 20 times……………….
This is yet another example of a federal agency failing to follow the tenets of the Freedom of Information Act. But how many federal agencies have their own evacuation plans designed to save lives in the event of a nuclear accident?
I’m a Three Mile Island baby, and this is serious stuff. In a world where nuclear plants become weapons of war, this is no time for secrets. https://dentonrc.com/news/the_watchdog/the-watchdog-nuclear-regulatory-commission-flunks-this-public-records-test/article_2bd07602-4a09-588a-9670-d323d752f350.html
How safe are nuclear power plants?
A new history reveals that federal
regulators consistently assured Americans that the risks of a massive
accident were “vanishingly small”—even when they knew they had
insufficient evidence to prove it.
Thomas Wellock, formerly a professor at
Central Washington University, became the historian of the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (N.R.C.) more than a decade ago. He brought chops to
the job—training in engineering, experience testing nuclear reactors, and
a Ph.D. in history from Berkeley—and, in March of 2021, published the
sixth in a series of authorized volumes about how the agency, and its
predecessor, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (A.E.C.), has regulated
civilian nuclear power.
“Safe Enough? A History of Nuclear Power and
Accident Risk” is a refreshingly candid account of how the government,
from the nineteen-forties onward, approached the bottom-line question posed
in the book’s title. Technically astute insiders at the A.E.C. took it
for granted that “catastrophic accidents” were possible; the key
question was: What were the chances? The long and the short of it,
Wellock’s book suggests, is that, while many officials believed the
chances were very low, nobody really knew for sure how low they were or
could prove it scientifically.
Even as plants were being built, the numbers
used by officials to describe the likelihood of an accident were based on
“expert guesswork or calculations that often produced absurd results,”
he writes. The “guesswork” nature of such analysis was never candidly
acknowledged to either the public or the agency’s licensing boards, which
had the legal responsibility of determining that individual plants all
around the country were safe enough to be approved for operation.
New Yorker 13th Aug 2022
https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/how-safe-are-nuclear-power-plants
Ukraine Plant Under Fire Showcases ‘Dangerous’ Nature of Nuclear Power, Experts Say
“Having reactors in a war zone is a nightmare waiting to become a grim reality,” said one critic.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/08/ukraine-plant-under-fire-showcases-dangerous-nature-nuclear-power-experts-say KENNY STANCIL, August 8, 2022 Critics of atomic energy on Monday described the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia power station in southeastern Ukraine as “a warning that nuclear power plants are a liability, not an asset, especially under extreme conditions of war or climate change.”
While Kyiv and Moscow continue to trade blame for recent strikes on the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, advocates at Beyond Nuclear emphasized that regardless of who is at fault, damage to the six-reactor site could have deadly consequences “far beyond the war zone.”
“If even just one of the six operational reactors there suffered catastrophic damage and released its radioactive inventory we are talking about a humanitarian disaster that would dwarf Chernobyl,” Linda Pentz Gunter, international specialist at Beyond Nuclear, said in a statement.
Radioactive contamination from that 1986 nuclear accident in what is now Ukraine rendered an area of more than 1,000 square miles uninhabitable and caused the illnesses and deaths of potentially hundreds of thousands of people.
According to Beyond Nuclear, reactors at Zaporizhzhia “contain far more radioactivity, both in the working reactors and in the irradiated fuel pools, than was present at the relatively new Chernobyl Unit 4 when it exploded.”
“This situation brings home all too alarmingly just how dangerous nuclear power is as an energy source,” said Gunter. “We would not be having this conversation if we were dealing with solar panels or wind turbines.”
“The potential to cause a catastrophic accident even on a good day should have been enough to end the use of this technology,” she added. “Having reactors in a war zone is a nightmare waiting to become a grim reality.”
Beyond Nuclear is not alone in sounding the alarm about the dire consequences that could materialize following damage to Zaporizhzhia or any other nuclear power plants now at risk in Ukraine.
Last week, Shaun Burnie, senior nuclear specialist with Greenpeace, told Democracy Now! that “nuclear plants are extremely vulnerable to external attack in the context of a war zone.” He added, “You’re looking at potential massive releases of radioactivity, potentially even greater than Chernobyl.”
Buildings housing nuclear reactors are not designed to withstand missile attacks nor extreme weather events. In March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami led to a loss of power in three reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan, with calamitous results. As the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis supercharges storms, nuclear infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to damage of that sort.
This is not the first time that nuclear engineers at Zaporizhzhia have found themselves under military assault. Russian shelling of the facility in early March sparked a fire.
None of the reactor buildings or fuel storage sites were affected then. “But after more than five months of fighting,” Beyond Nuclear explained Monday, “the site has become more perilous, given its proximity to the eastern regions that are at the heart of contention between the two countries.”
“The risk of fire is one of the most serious hazards at nuclear power plants on a routine basis,” said Paul Gunter, reactor oversight specialist at Beyond Nuclear. “A fire at Zaporizhzhia could spread to the irradiated fuel storage pools located outside primary containment and lead to explosions and meltdowns.”
“If the fuel pools are damaged and cooling water boils away, exposing the highly radioactive rods to air, we could see hydrogen explosions and the spread of radioactivity far worse than occurred at Fukushima,” he continued.
Winds would distribute radioactive gases across Europe and, depending on the scale of the disaster, beyond, potentially reaching as far away as the United States. A Greenpeace analysis published earlier this year warned that severe damage to Zaporizhzhia could render large swaths of Europe “uninhabitable for decades.”
Radioactive fallout from the facility could subject tens of millions of people to chronic or fatal health problems, with the effects of exposure lasting for years on end.
Thirty-six years after Ukraine’s first nuclear disaster, “people still living in Chernobyl-contaminated areas are showing increases in cardiovascular disorders, issues with sight and respiration, and significantly increased rates of birth defects and deformities,” said Cindy Folkers, radiation and health hazards specialist at Beyond Nuclear.
“Given the far greater amounts of radiation that could be released in the event of a major disaster at Zaporizhzhia, we would expect to see greater numbers of people seriously harmed and for far longer than the health impacts caused by Chornobyl,” Folkers said.
Russia summons session of UN Security Council over nuclear emergency
https://www.rt.com/russia/560576-zaporozhye-nuclear-plant-un/ 10 Aug 22, Moscow has accused Kiev of striking the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, risking a repeat of the Chernobyl disaster
Russia has summoned an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which has been the subject of regular shelling attacks. Moscow wants the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to brief the council on the situation.
The move, which was reported by Russian media on Tuesday, was confirmed by the deputy head of Russia’s mission to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, who said the public needed to learn about “Ukrainian provocations.” The meeting is expected to take place on Thursday.
Russia has summoned an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which has been the subject of regular shelling attacks. Moscow wants the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to brief the council on the situation.
The move, which was reported by Russian media on Tuesday, was confirmed by the deputy head of Russia’s mission to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, who said the public needed to learn about “Ukrainian provocations.” The meeting is expected to take place on Thursday.
The IAEA has not had access to the site since before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict escalated in late February and relies on reports from Ukraine to assess the situation on the ground. The Zaporozhye plant is manned by Ukrainian nuclear workers despite being under Russian control.
On Saturday, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi expressed the IAEA’s concern over the artillery strikes, stating that they underlined “the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond.”
“I condemn any violent acts carried out at or near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant or against its staff,” he stressed.
Grossi is expected to lead an inspection of the facility for an independent assessment of the situation and verification that non-proliferation safeguards remain in place.
The Zaporozhye plant is the largest in Europe and stores tens of tons of enriched uranium and plutonium in its reactor cores and spent fuel storage, according to the IAEA. The watchdog chief earlier said he was alarmed that the security of the radioactive materials may be compromised amid Russian-Ukrainian hostilities.
Both Kiev and Moscow stated that they were eager for the proposed inspection to take place. However, it has yet to materialize due to security concerns. The Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the delay played into Kiev’s hands by allowing it to continue its provocative attacks.
Moscow called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to leverage his authority to speed up the IAEA visit. The UN Department of Safety and Security is acting irresponsibly by stalling the visit, foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova alleged in an interview on Wednesday.
Guterres last week said that “any attack to a nuclear plant is a suicidal thing.”
Russian diplomats and military officials stated that attacks on Zaporozhye power plant could result in a disaster worse than the Chernobyl reactor meltdown and steam explosion in 1986.
Very high radiation risks amid shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The head of Ukraine ‘s state nuclear power firm has warned of “very high”
radiation risks amid shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Energoatom’s chief, Petro Kotin, said it was vital Kyiv regains control
over the facility in the Russian-occupied south in time for winter.
He added that last week’s shelling had damaged three lines that connect the
plant to the Ukrainian grid and that Russia wanted to connect the facility
to its grid. Some of the shelling landed near storage facilities for spent
fuel, an area that has 174 containers of highly radioactive material, Kotin
said. He warned of the dangers of them being hit, saying: “This is…the
most radioactive material in all the nuclear power plant.
Mirror 10th Aug 2022
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ukraines-nuclear-chief-warns-very-27702181
“Shell” companies purchase radioactive materials, prompting push for nuclear licensing reform
Defense News, By Bryant Harris, 10 Aug 22,
WASHINGTON – Late last year, government employees forged a copy of a license to buy hazardous, radioactive material. They created shell companies, then placed orders, generated invoices and paid two U.S.-based vendors.
The scheme worked. The employees successfully had the material shipped, complete with radioactive stickers on the side, then confirmed delivery.
But the workers were actually investigators from the Government Accountability Office, the congressional watchdog, and they were testing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s ability to regulate the sale and procurement of dangerous materials.
The act, and a subsequent report from the GAO, alarmed Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who is now calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to overhaul its licensing system as a way to avoid a national security disaster.
“Anyone could open a shell company with a fraudulent license to obtain dangerous amounts of radioactive material that could be weaponized into a dirty bomb,” Torres told Defense News in an interview on Wednesday. “Disperse radioactive material in a city as densely populated as New York, and it could cause catastrophic damage.”
The commission classifies radioactive material into five categories of risk. Only categories one and two currently are subject to its independent license verification system – a loophole that Torres and the GAO fear that an individual or group could exploit to wreak havoc by building a dirty bomb that combines combines conventional explosives with category three radioactive materials.
Torres, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, is pressing the NRC to immediately expand its independent license verification system to include category three quantities of radioactive materials. He formally made the licensing overhaul request in a letter seen by Defense News on Wednesday. This request is in line with the GAO’s recommendations in what Torres called an “alarming report.”………………………
more https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2022/08/10/shell-companies-purchase-radioactive-materials-prompting-push-for-nuclear-licensing-reform/
Attacking a nuclear plant ‘suicidal,’ UN chief tells journalists in Japan
- UN News, 8 Aug 2022 Relief Web
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned a recent attack on a nuclear power station in southern Ukraine during a meeting in Tokyo on Monday with the Japan National Press Club.
“Any attack to nuclear plants is…suicidal,” the UN chief said, adding that he hoped that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would be able to access the plant for inspection.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have denied responsibility for the strike on the Zaporizhzhia plant over the weekend.
While Europe’s largest nuclear power site has been under Russian control since the early days of the war, Ukrainian technicians are still running it…………………………….
During Monday’s news conference, the UN chief reiterated his warning over the use of nuclear weapons, saying that if used, the UN would probably be unable respond because “we might all not be here anymore”.
Against the backdrop that the world currently has 13,000 nuclear bombs while continuing to make huge investments into modernizing atomic arsenals, Mr. Guterres warned that after decades of nuclear disarmament efforts, we are “moving backwards”.
“Stop it,” he appealed, underscoring that the billions of dollars being leveraged into the arms race need to be used in “fighting climate change, fighting poverty, [and] addressing the needs of the international community”.
The Secretary-General will next be traveling to Mongolia and South Korea to discuss ways to address North Korea’s nuclear development.
‘Common sense’ restraint
When asked about China’s massive military exercises around Taiwan, Mr. Guterres said the UN “abides by a resolution of the General Assembly, the so-called One China policy”.
The dispute was sparked by a visit last week to island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“We all want that resolution to correspond to a peaceful environment,” he said, calling for common sense and restraint to allow for an “extremely important” de-escalation. https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/attacking-nuclear-plant-suicidal-un-chief-tells-journalists-japan
Parts of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant damaged when struck by shelling
Ukraine’s state nuclear agency, Enerhoatom, said parts of the captured
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant were “seriously damaged” after a station
containing oxygen and nitrogen and an “auxiliary building” were struck by
shelling. There is now an increased risk of fire and radiation.
On Telegram, the agency said Saturday: “The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
is operating at risk of violating the norms of radiation and fire
protection.” “There remains a risk of hydrogen leaking and radioactive
particles dispersing, and the risk of fire is also high,” Enerhoatom added.
Deutsche Welle 6th Aug 2022
https://www.dw.com/en/russia-ukraine-updates-parts-of-nuclear-plant-seriously-damaged/a-62729710
IAEA alarmed at danger to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as shelling continues in Ukraine war
The UN nuclear watchdog has called for an immediate end to all military
action near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after it was hit by
shelling, causing one of the reactors to shut down and creating a “very
real risk of a nuclear disaster”. Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general
of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he was “extremely
concerned” by reports of damage at the plant and called for IAEA experts
to be allowed to inspect the damage.
“I’m extremely concerned by the
shelling yesterday at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which
underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster that could threaten
public health and the environment in Ukraine and beyond,” he said. The
Ukrainian nuclear power company Energoatom said the attack had damaged a
power cable and forced one of the reactors to stop working, and that
“there are still risks of leaking hydrogen and radioactive substances,
and the risk of fire is also high”. The shelling “has caused a serious
risk for the safe operation of the plant”, Grossi said.
Observer 6th Aug 2022
Reuters 6th Aug 2022
Danger of nuclear weapons convoys on the UK’s M6
CAMPAIGNERS have again released photographs of a Ministry of Defence
convoy on the M6 – something they say ‘terrifies’ them. Members of
the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament say they believe trucks making up the
convoy were transporting nuclear warheads.
The route they take uses the M6 through Cheshire, Warrington and St Helens to and from the atomic weapons establishment in Berkshire and the Trident nuclear weapons system base at
Coulport, in the West of Scotland. The convoy is believed to have been
parked at Weeton Barracks, near Kirkham in Lancashire, on the night of
Monday, July 25, after passing through Cheshire on the M6.
St Helens Star 4th Aug 2022
https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/20601561.nuclear-weapon-convoy-m6-terrifies-campaigners/
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station “completely out of control” – IAEA
The U.N. nuclear chief warned that Europe´s largest nuclear power plant
in Ukraine “is completely out of control” and issued an urgent plea to
Russia and Ukraine to quickly allow experts to visit the sprawling complex
to stabilize the situation and avoid a nuclear accident.
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an
interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that the situation is getting
more perilous every day at the Zaporizhzhya plant in the southeastern city
of Enerhodar, which Russian troops seized in early March, soon after their
Feb. 24. invasion of Ukraine.
Daily Mail 3rd Aug 2022
A worsening situation of cracks in Britain’s ageing nuclear reactors
Today (10am, 1 August) Reactor 3 at the Hinkley Point B nuclear power
plant will cease generation for the last time. After the closure of Reactor
4 last month, this will finally bring all electricity production at the
Somerset site to a halt.
Although there were calls for the plant to be
granted a lifetime extension, recent revelations about the extent of
graphite core cracking at Hinkley Point B have convinced the Nuclear Free
Local Authorities that EDF Energy made the right call in sticking to its
closure plan, and the NFLA fears that core cracking will increasingly
compromise the safety of Britain’s remaining aging Advanced Gas Cooled
Reactors if their operating lifetimes are further extended.
In March 2014,
in response to a Freedom of Information request submitted via the Office of
Nuclear Regulation, EDF Energy reported that at their two oldest AGR
stations, Hunterston B (now closed) and Hinkley Point B, there were ‘less
than 10% cracked bricks in the reactor’. In 2017, the Office of Nuclear
Regulation made a major concession to EDF Energy by doubling the tolerances
so that it was now acceptable for a plant to operate with up to 20% of
graphite bricks cracked, rather than the original 10%.
However, in a
response dated May 2022 to a specific enquiry from the NFLA Secretary about
graphite cracking, it became clear that at Hinkley Point B even the raised
tolerance has been breached with the nuclear regulator reporting that in
Reactor 3, 28.8% of graphite bricks were observed to be cracked and in
Reactor 4, 22% with ‘a 99.9% confidence level’ of accuracy, with keyway
cracking observed in both.
Although overall cracking in the other AGRs is
presently reported to be under 10%, worryingly cracks in the vital keyway
bricks have been discovered at Heysham 2, Reactor 7 and at Torness, Reactor
1, which is the currently the last reactor scheduled to be closed in 2028,
suggesting a worsening situation.
NFLA 1st Aug 2022
Ukraine wants to export nuclear-generated electricity to European states – but is that safe?
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko has a problem. His
government has tasked him with convincing the EU that the country’s nuclear
fleet is safe enough to export massive amounts of
electricity to the bloc in a bid to help fill Kyiv’s depleted coffers and
bring down eye-watering European power prices.
But the Russian occupation of several Ukrainian nuclear sites since the invasion — coupled with the
minister’s very public spats over safety with the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA) — have raised European fears about the safety of
Ukraine’s power system.
Politico 2nd Aug 2022
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-pitch-export-power-europe-nuclear-safety-snag/
Cracking in the graphite core of Advanced Gas Cooled Nuclear Reactors
Today (10am, 1 August) Reactor 3 at the Hinkley Point B nuclear power plant
will cease generation for the last time. After the closure of Reactor 4
last month, this will finally bring all electricity production at the
Somerset site to a halt.
Although there were calls for the plant to be
granted a lifetime extension, recent revelations about the extent of
graphite core cracking at Hinkley Point B have convinced the Nuclear Free
Local Authorities that EDF Energy made the right call in sticking to its
closure plan, and the NFLA fears that core cracking will increasingly
compromise the safety of Britain’s remaining aging Advanced Gas Cooled
Reactors if their operating lifetimes are further extended.
Hinkley Point B was the first plant to be equipped with two Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors
(AGRs), entering service in 1976. Over 300 fuel channels and 10 layers of
graphite bricks make up the core of each AGR. EDF Energy has described the
graphite structure as ‘the major safety requirement of the core’.
Each graphite brick is loosely connected to its neighbouring bricks by graphite
‘keys’ and there are also ‘keyways’ at the top and bottom of each
brick. The continued integrity of the structure is vital to operational
safety as it provides pathways for the fuel rods, which generate the
fission reaction, to be loaded and for the control rods, which moderate the
reaction, to be inserted.
Although overall cracking in the other AGRs is
presently reported to be under 10%, worryingly cracks in the vital keyway
bricks have been discovered at Heysham 2, Reactor 7 and at Torness, Reactor
1, which is the currently the last reactor scheduled to be closed in 2028,
suggesting a worsening situation.
NFLA 1st Aug 2022
Beatty Nevada Nuclear waste explosions, in the desert.
Terry Southard 2 Aug 22,
Explosions of nuclear waste from pieces of decommissioned San onofre reactor, by San diego.The pieces of the reactor and the other waste from the San Diego, San Onofre reactor decommissioning, started blowing up in the desert outside beatty Nevada. Later the San onofre nuclear waste was dug up and transfered, to a nuclear waste facility outside salt lake city Utah. The explosions, were caused by the decay heat and pyrophoricty of the radionuclides, in the waste and that had accumulated on the reactor pieces.
We simply, don’t get to learn from the mainstream media, about these radioactive hazards.
New Mexico was on fire this summer. 800 thousand acres burned. So much nuclear waste and fallout, in New Mexico, from bomb building and testing. I would not be surprised, if there is a major uptick in lung cancers, and other cancers, in New Mexico in the next 5 years . Nuke bombs exploded under rivers in New Mexico, project gas buggy. Uranium waste catastrophes. Nuclear waste dumps in many places. Largest plutonium core operation in the world at Los Alamos, by Santa fe. Wipp plutonium dump, by Clovis.
These explosions were caused by parts of the decommisioned, highly radioactive pieces of the San onofre reactor, buried in Nevada for a few years. They had to dqqig them up, after the explosions and, moved them to utah. You would have thought, peopke in Utah, would have known better.
Steppenwolf just stick yur head into the sand, pretend that all is grand and everything will be ok
This will happen at other shoddy nuclear waste operations in the usa. Typically under-regulated, and under supervised by cheap and mismanaged, foreign owned nuclear waste management companies. Give them an inch and, they take a mile. They bribe state legislators and start taking in nuclear waste, from other countries. Countries like Japan and Estonia. That happened at the white mesa nuke waste operation, by blanding, utah. I think there is greater risk of wildfires, in the white mesa area, from the pryophoric effects of radionuclide dust from white mesa, blowing into surrounding areas.. There was a truck full of nuke waste owned by energy fuels, by Salt Lake City, that caught fire in 2018. The white mesa, energy fuel operation is trucking in nuke waste, from all over the world.
Radionuclides generate their own heat and can start fires on their own even in small amounts, like the plutonium did at rocky flats. That is why the US Armed forces, uses depleted uranium in bombs, bullets and, other munitions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Flats_Plant
https://www.osti.gov/biblio/515622
Wildfires and cancer
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00067-5/fulltext
More wildfires and cancer
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2022/05/17/wildfires-cancer-risk-study/5531652723109/
Wildfires are increasing cancer rates in the World.
https://thescotfree.com/opinion/incident-at-santa-susana-a-meltdown-a-fire-and-a-cover-up/
1 This Month
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com/
Now until to February 10, 2026 Radioactive waste storage in France: the debate is finally open! How to participate?
12 February – Webinar The Big Push: New Nuclear Projects in Canada
Thursday, February 12, 7 pm Eastern | 2nd of 4 sessions in the 2026 Nuclear Waste Online webinar series.
Join a webinar on the push for new nuclear generation in Canada. Go to Northwatch.org to register or use the registration link https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZfWOf1GITqSRIZX8CB-A9w
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