]]> http://diychica.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/scammers-try-to-capitalize-on-radiation-fears-with-fake-pills/ Thu, 24 Mar 2011 20:56:09 +0000 diychica http://diychica.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/scammers-try-to-capitalize-on-radiation-fears-with-fake-pills/ Con artists are busy trying to convince frightened consumers to protect themselves with potassium iodide pills from the nuclear catastrophe unfolding in Japan.

Source:
http://www.walletpop.com/2011/03/22/scammers-try-to-capitalize-on-radiation-fears-with-fake-pills-f/

]]> http://flaauthor.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/an-inside-look-at-the-japanese-horror/ Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:29:35 +0000 flaauthor http://flaauthor.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/an-inside-look-at-the-japanese-horror/

Millesevers Radiation Exposure Chart

My dear friends and followers.  I have received this private eMail from a Triple Seven United pilot caught in the Japanese Horror.  I offer it to give you an inside perspective.  I look forward to your comments!

Cliff

“Update from Tokyo (UA 777 Capt) 

Hello all.  First of all, I’m OK.  (I know you’ve heard that one before….)  I was in Tokyo for “the big one”.  Here’s a bit of narrative and thoughts I have written during the last day and a half.  It’s a bit long.  Most of it written starting a few hours after the quake, but is a continuing journal also.  (Some of you have already received some of this)

March 11, 2011, I am just finishing up my 24 hour layover in Tokyo, Japan.  The trip from Los Angeles was pretty much uneventful, as is the layover.  I am freshly showered and just finishing dressing and packing my bags for the next leg of my trip to Singapore.  I am just starting to put my socks and shoes on, and will be ready for the hour taxi ride back to Narita Airport.  Just another exhausting all night flight to look forward to.

The taxi pickup time is 3:10 in the afternoon, which is 10:10 at night Los Angeles time.  At just a couple of minutes prior to 3:00 o’clock, it hit.  Not very strong at first, but strong enough that I know exactly what it is.  An earthquake.  Now, Japan just had a pretty strong 7.2 quake a week or so ago, so it’s probably just an aftershock.  I’ve been through 4 or 5 strong quakes in Los Angeles during my life, so my initial reaction is to just keep getting ready to check out.  No big deal.

This quake seems different though.  I’m no expert, but this one is starting to worry me.  I’m on the 17^th floor of a 37 story hotel, and things are starting to get interesting.  One, this quake is getting stronger.  And two, it’s not going away.  It’s lasting longer than any I have been in.  I’m starting to get a bit worried, because it’s going on and on, and getting stronger and stronger.  It goes on for seconds, on into minutes.

I figure I better start to take this one seriously and make plans to bug out of here.  Actually, not much planning at all, I decide to get the hell out and rush to get my shoes and socks on.  I stand up and find out I can’t stand.  The building is rocking so hard I fall back down on the bed.  I get up and start to run to the door, and figure I better take some provisions with me.  So I turn around and head back to grab my bags that have some food bars and water already packed in them.  If I’m going to be stuck out on the street I want to have as much provisions as I can carry.  Maybe a dumb idea, but maybe not.

As I try to gather up all my stuff, I notice how bad this earthquake really is.  The room is creaking and moaning, cupboards are rattling, drawers are sliding, and I am falling down.  This is really a bad one.  I look out the window and can’t believe my eyes.  Another building across the street, maybe about 150 feet away, and another one beyond that, probably another 100 or 150 feet are moving.  Really swaying.  I mean REALLY swaying.  I can see them moving 5 or 10 feet back and forth.  The perspective is something that only Hollywood could produce.  Massive buildings rocking back and forth.

Up to this point I wasn’t really scared, that is till I see those buildings moving.  That sight brings a new reality to the situation.  Now, I actually think that this might be my last moments on earth.  I am in a tall building that is rocking and rolling, and as far as I’m concerned, is acting like it will fall down any second.  The quake has been going on not for just seconds, but for minutes, and seems like hours.  Now my mind is racing.  I am starting to second guess every thought I have.  Do I stay?  Do I go?  Do I leave everything?  Do I take everything?  What do I do?  Where do I go?

My heart is racing, my adrenalin is pumping, and my legs seem to be getting weaker.  This quake rocks on for about four minutes.  FOUR MINUTES!  That’s an eternity.

I make my decision and go for it.  I grab my two bags and head out.  My room is right next to a fire escape, and that’s where I head.  I break the plastic lock cover off the door and try to open it.  The lock won’t turn.  I try harder.  It finally turns and I get it unlocked.  I try to open the door and it won’t open.  The doorknob turns, but the door is wedged shut.  I take a step back and put my shoulder into it.  It finally pops open with a thud.  I’m out on the balcony and head for the stairway door, but it’s hard to open as well.  I finally get it open, and grab my bags to head down.

The second I start down, a hotel employee yells at me to come back.  He tells me to go with him.  So, I turn around and head back down the hallway, past my room, and into the employee section and stairwell.  I start down.  Carrying my bags is hard enough, but down stairs is harder, and down 17 flights is really hard.  The employee is staying with me though, and offering to carry my bags.  But I persevere and continue down, down, down till I finally come out in the lobby level.  I’m sweating, winded, and still a bit scared.

Well, I feel safer now, being out of that building.  Well not all the way out, but in the lobby at least.  I meet with my co-pilot and some other United crews.  There are a lot of people all milling around now.  We are supposed to go to the airport, but nobody really knows for sure.  Our taxi is here and ready, but I get hold of a phone and call United to see if they have a plan.  Of course not.  Well, it has only been 10 or 15 minutes since the quake and….  Oh shit, As I’m talking to the duty manager, an aftershock hits.  A big one.  I run out to the front of the hotel to get in the clear.

But in the middle of a big city downtown, there is no clear.  I can certainly see sky, but on the other hand I can see more buildings than sky.  If one of those suckers decides to fall down, there is really no place to go.

It’s not long, and we find out that the hi-way is closed; the airport is evacuated, and then closed.  We really have no place to go, so, we stay.  We still have water and electricity, so we are not as bad off as those poor people up to the north.

The rest of my day involves sitting in the hotel, on my computer trying to find out information, and riding out aftershocks.  I eventually get another room on the 14^th floor, which doesn’t make me very happy, and again ride out aftershocks all night long.  Many, many aftershocks.  I don’t sleep all night.  My legs are still weak.  My hands are still shaking.

Airports closed.  Trains and subways stopped.  Oil refineries on fire.  Eleven nuclear plants shut down.  Hi-ways closed.

Now I hear a nuclear plant not far away is losing its cooling water, and a radiation leak is expected.  The area is being evacuated.

I turn the TV off, turn the lights off and try to get some sleep, but it’s futile.  The aftershocks are virtually continuous.  They are not real strong, but go on and on and on.  I timed a couple of them.  One lasted 12 minutes, and another 9 minutes.  There are a few moments of inactivity, but for the most part, it’s still rock and roll.

One reason for no sleep is the constant creaking in the floors, walls and ceiling.  It’s amazing, even the slightest movement starts a constant crescendo of creaking.   There is just no chance of sleeping, or even relaxing.  My adrenalin I think has been pumping for 14 hours now.  I’m weak, and shaky.  I really gave my legs a workout coming down all those stairs too.  They are pretty sore.

The news on the TV is just devastating.  The quake was pretty bad, but the real damage seems to be coming from the tsunami.  On top of that, there are a lot of fires breaking out too.  This is one of those natural disasters of epic proportion.  And here I am, smack dab in the middle of it.  Crap.

I phone United in hopes that they have a plan for us.  Well, they do, and it’s not what I expect.  They have us rescheduled to continue on our original schedule, just a day later.  What?  They are not getting us home?  I can’t believe it.  Well, maybe I can.

But from my perspective, It’s nuts to send us on.  I have had about 10 hours sleep in the last 48 hours, with virtually no chance of getting any more.  The building is just too noisy and moves too much to get any sleep.  I talked to Mark, and he’s pretty much the same.  So I’ll have about a day’s worth of sleep in 3 days.  That’s just nuts.  What the hell are they thinking?

But stiff upper lip and all that.  Damn the torpedoes, and carry on.  What a mess.

We eventually make it down to Singapore, a day late.  I pass out once I hit the bed, but only sleep 5 hours.  That makes about 20 hours of sleep in the last 85 or so.  Mark and I are both exhausted.  At least the hotel room isn’t swaying, although while laying in bed it seems like it is.  Funny what your mind does to you.

It’s been 48 hours since the quake now, and I just pulled up my schedule.  It shows us heading back to Narita (Tokyo) tomorrow morning.  I haven’t talked to anyone at United, but from what I see on the news, I’m thinking that that is not such a great idea.  Food shortages and power outages in Tokyo, not to mention at least two, and now maybe three nuclear plants in jeopardy of major damage and meltdowns.  I’ve had enough radiation exposure over the last year with all the CT scans I’ve had, I don’t want to fly through a radiation cloud and come home glowing green or growing a third eyeball in my forehead.  I’ll talk to the co-pilot and we will make a decision before the morning flight.  It will be a tough one.

My immediate plans for the rest of the day are to get a good meal, and a good night’s sleep.  I hope.

That’s about it from the war front.  I guess I should ask that you don’t reply, at least for a while.  I’m behind enough on my emails just being away from home for a week, not even counting all this mess.  Hopefully I’ll make it home soon.  Thanks for all your prayers, thoughts and support.

Dan”

Cliff here.  Listening to CNN at 11:06 PM Wednesday.. “Pressure is rising in reactor Number 5, an up-to-now unaffected site.  This occured prior to every explosion in the other four reactors.  Americans are prohibited within 80 KM of this complex.  Anything you have heard about ‘current state’ of all six reactors is merely speculation and wishful thinking.  No one can get in, no cameras are working, and no instrumentation is working.  As of now, all is speculation and wishful thinking!”

Please understand that I have enough nuclear training to make myself dangerous.  My son, on the other hand, is as close to understanding what is happening there and any Senior Instructor of Initial Nuclear Training for Operators as anyone can be.  His insights have been very instructive to me.  Lastly, I built a ‘working’ nuclear reactor when I was 12, for a science project.  Yes, I won!

God help Japan!

• As a measure of just how jumpy markets are right now, stock markets futures and various currency pairs slumped aggressively following headlines hitting the newswires from the EU’s energy commissioner.

• The energy chief is quoted as saying that catastrophic events are possible in the next few hours and that the situation at the nuclear plant is out of control.
• The US dollar, yen and Swiss franc were in demand today anyway, but the headlines have added further volatility.
• Bizarrely, no-0ne has been able to find out what the commissioner is specifically referring to and there is some confusion as to whether the comments refer to yesterday’s situation.
• More to follow when more concrete news emerges, but here’s the current state of play:

In 2008, total worldwide energy derived for 80 to 90% from the combustion of fossil fuels.

In 2008, annual generation of nuclear power met 13–14% of the world’s electricity demand.

Can’t we really produce 13 to 14% of total world’s electricity demand by less dangerous solar, wind, water and geothermal energy?  Do we have to risk another nuclear catastrophe like the one ongoing in Japan before giving up with nuclear plants?

Do we REALLY need the 13-14% of energy produced by power plants? In Italy, for example, every summer energy demands increases because of obsolete house cooling systems. In the USA, 56% of the energy produced is lost! Every time billions of people leave their electric devices in standby, their lights on when they are out, their windows open with the cooling system running, their room temperature at 19°C in summer and 23°C in winter, they contribute to the insane race for atomic power.

I assume nuclear energy is NOT necessary. Nuclear energy is a lucrative market for some and an abused and useless commodity for most.

I salute the fellow humans in Japan; their dignified attitude even in the face of massive adversity is simply incredible! May they continue to draw required amount of internal – mental and physical and social and economical and political – strengths to pass through their undoubtedly the darkest hours, which too shall pass … And, Japan will soon be back at being The Land of The Rising Sun

…………….

“If people thought Nature was their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy,” said Kurt Vonnegut, the accomplished American novelist and satirist.

The recent flurry of Nature’s fury makes Vonnegut’s caustic comment sound almost like a gospel. Before the world could adjust to the magnitude of destruction caused by the cyclone Nargis, there was this earthquake of very high magnitude devastating buildings and bodies alike in China. And in both cases – like in all cases of Nature’s onslaught since the start of evolution – humans’ body as well as souls got battered badly. The culprit: Nature.

Now, can this kind of Nature be anybody’s friend? …

Well, till one is himself or herself not in such a godforsaken situation, one cannot say yes or no to it. And a simple yes or no will not suffice, anyway.

It is a deep debate which requires profound understanding of the nature of Nature!

Here, we need to recall what Lao Tzu, the great Chinese philosopher and the founder of Taoism said once, “Nature is not human hearted.”

“Human-Hearted” – an intriguing adjective! What does it mean in essence?

If Nature isn’t any human’s friend, then is a human a friend of another human? Aren’t the Burmese military generals “humans” too? Then why have they left the millions of survivors to suffer further with their unrelenting refusal to allow international aids? Moreover, another aspect which should not be neglected is that why did the brutal military regime neglect the cyclone alert forwarded to it by India at least 48 hours in advance? Wasn’t it a conspiracy to kill its own countrymen? Should Nature be blamed here solely?

In contrast, what was remarkable about China’s handling of the crisis was the swift action of the Chinese government. The presence of the Chinese top leaderships at the sites of devastations was a great comfort to the unfortunates and a lesson in disaster management for many so-called political leaders across the world.

So, who is humans’ best friend – a fellow human or Nature? …

Perhaps, Albert Einstein could help: ” What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility.”

I pray that some wise man’s ‘once-upon-a-time’ said words come true for the affected Burmese and Chinese: “The Rainbows of life follows the storm.” …

……………………………..

The world – India included – will have to let all its thoughts and ideas converge and debate hard about putting billions of lives – humans included – at enormous risk by pushing hard – diplomatic pressures are immense on countries like India and, thus, Jaitapur? – for the much celebrated nuclear energy options …

via SOMEBODY PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION?! | COLLAPSENET.

Fukushima 1 is completely out of control. A picture from Digital Globe shows the horrible destructions on the reactor buildings. PICTURE source: www.ryocentral.info

Go To: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12716870 and
http://www.msnbc.msn.com For Updates!

Scale of nuclear accidents
Level 7 – Major release of radioactive material. Example: Chernobyl, Ukraine, 1986
Level 6 – Significant release of radioactive material. Example: Kyshtym, Russia, 1957
Level 5 – Limited release of radioactive material. Example: Three Mile Island, US, 1979, and Windscale, UK, 1957
Level 4 – Minor release of radioactive material with at least one death from radiation. Example: Tokaimura, Japan, 1999
Level 3 – Exposure in excess of 10 times the statutory annual limit for workers
Level 2 – Exposure of a member of the public in excess of 10mSv (average annual dose is 1mSv)
Level 1 – Exposure of a member of public above statutory annual limit. Minor safety problems

JAPAN is teetering on the brink of nuclear catastrophe amid fears a radioactive cloud could envelop Tokyo’s 13million residents..

Read full article HERE ( source: theSun)

WIND PATTERNS HAVE CHANGED, TOKYO IN DIRECT WIND OF FALL OUT, RAD LEVELS RISING!! ( update 4 Hours ago )

Environmental radioactivity and radiation information

Realtime radiation data collected via the System for Prediction of Environment Emergency Dose Information(SPEEDI) Source: http://www.bousai.ne.jp/eng/index.html

BUT IF THE WIND DIRECTION CHANGES AGAIN?

Real time monitoring at:Source: www.spiegel.de

Japan’s fallout, Ten (10) times the size of Chernobyl, extreme risk of lethal radiation to HIT the U.S. , Mexico and Canada! Read full article HERE

*

How to protect yourself from Radiation Exposure

Because of what is occurring in Japan, many people are wondering what they could do to protect themselves in the event that dangerous levels of radiation were to make their way into the United States.

The following is a consensus of options that may be protective without being dangerous.  It’s important to understand that some of these options have not been studied in large, well organized trials but come about as a result of the reported experience of countries, scientists and physicians who had to deal with dangerous levels of radiation and their effects on the populations exposed to them. Read full article HERE

Sources and authors: earth-issues.com * bousai.ne.jp * video 553Fs (youtube)

By Roger Witherspoon

As the Japanese struggle to prevent a widening disaster in its nuclear fleet from adding to the natural disaster facing that country, America’s nuclear proponents are struggling to show that such a calamity could not happen here.

One Gannett newspaper trumpeted that the local, Indian Point nuclear power plant was designed to withstand earthquakes and would not suffer the same fate as the Fukushima Daiichi plants. The implication was that it could withstand an earthquake similar to the one which struck Japan – though the biggest quakes in the Northeast barely hit 4.0 on the Richter scale and most are of negligible impact.

But for journalists dealing with the subject, it is important to keep two facts in mind:

• America’s nuclear plants were designed to withstand known or anticipated natural disasters. But those plans were made using the technology of the 1950s and early 60s, when they were designed. The science of earthquakes, the advances in engineering, and the analysis of soil mechanics necessary to make modern, earthquake-proof skyscrapers did not exist back in the era of Eisenhower, bobby socks and the Atoms for Peace program. They do not, therefore, meet modern earthquake standards.
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not require a modern analysis of the ability of its 104 power plants to withstand earthquakes. One of the many unsuccessful challenges to the relicensing of the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear power plants on Artificial Island in New Jersey contended that a new, earthquake analysis should be conducted before the plants were granted 20 to 40-year license extensions. The NRC, however, ruled that the issue was settled with the original license and did not need to be revisited.

That is not to state that modern nuclear power plants are vulnerable to the type of unfolding tragedy taking place across the Pacific.  Several years ago, at least one electrical conduit at the Indian Point nuclear plant 30 miles north of Manhattan was disrupted by an earthquake, though the shift in the earth’s crust was undetectable by the walking public. Repairs were quick and relatively minor. Nuclear power plants are not fragile structures.

But they are man-made and old. Nearly all of them have buried pipes and conduits which have leaked in recent years. To what extent some of those leaks may have been created or exacerbated by years of low level shifts in the earth is not known. But that should be considered and definitely ruled in or out before a blanket grant of earthquake immunity is conferred on the power plant above it.

The same, regularly rumbling Wappinger’s Fault is believed responsible for the tracery of cracks in the Delaware Aqueduct, the water tunnel 800 feet underground which brings up to 70 percent of the drinking water used in New York City and Westchester County from the reservoirs in the Catskill Mountain region. It should be noted that this is a man made fault, caused by the extensive surface mining of a rock quarry which, in time, altered the tension of local geological formations.

Journalists should pause before buying the line that “it can’t happen here” and quoting it uncritically, particularly considering the earthquake-prone regions of the far west and Alaska. Proponents of nuclear power are on firmer ground stating it is not likely to happen here for both geological and sociological reasons.

In the former case, the number of regions in the U.S. with major known earth quake faults and the presence of a nuclear power plant is small. But with climate change and an increase in hydrofracking, there are new, unmeasured stresses added to the earth – just ask folks in Alabama’s new earthquake zone – which might reasonably deserve a thorough, modern look before any new power plant is built there.

In the latter case, dealing with sociology and risk perception, questions are already being raised about the Japanese decision making process as crutical events unfolded at Daiichi Unit 1 and its nuclear cohorts. Crucial decisions are affected by cultural differences in the perception of risk. Would American reactor operators have ignored possible public criticism and discharged into the air large, continuous amounts of highly contaminated vapor from the reactor rather than let dangerous amounts of hydrogen gas build up?  Was it more important to the Japanese operators to try and manage the gas buildup rather than deliberately dump radioactive material into the public air? Is there a significant, practical difference between making a bad decision to protect the public, and making a bad decision to protect corporate profits?

It will take long, thoughtful, after-action analysis by experts in human factors in complex systems to answer such questions and determine how to incorporate the lessons learned into the NRC’s training program for reactor operators. The NRC is one of the best public agencies when it comes to conducting lessons learned analysis, even if its record of following its lessons is spotty.  Any long term consensus needs outside input from academic think tanks such as the Center for Human Performance and Risk Analysis at the University of Wisconsin (  http://www.chpra.wisc.edu/index.php ).

When they are done, Americans will be in a better position to know just how safe our nuclear industry really is.

By Roger Witherspoon

The announcement by the Japanese government that sea water is being pumped into the damaged reactor building at the Fukushima signals the failure of all contingency plans to prevent a meltdown of the fuel in the reactor itself.

It leaves open the question of the safety of the hundreds of tons of spent fuel stored nearby in pools 40 feet deep. It is not clear if the structural integrity of the pool has been maintained or if the explosion has damaged the irradiated fuel bundles or the water flow systems serving them.

David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer of the Union of Concerned Scientists and a consultant to both industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in an interview this evening that the declaration by the government that the massive hydrogen explosion had not destroyed the reactor vessel itself was only part of the story.

“The control room is in the vicinity of the explosion,” Lochbaum said. “You could definitely have lost control room equipment, power cables, and safety system control cables.  In addition, it looked from the film that there was a fire after the explosion. The fact that anything inside the dry well containing the reactor vessel wasn’t directly affected is not the full story because so much of the equipment that cools the dry well is outside and vulnerable.”

The use of Sea water of river water, he added “is at the bottom of the list of tactics, and you have basically used up all other options if you turn to that.  It means you have had a very bad day, and you are going to pump water into the primary containment building until it is flooded and you allow that to cool the reactor vessel.”

By flooding the containment building above the level of the reactor, it is nearly impossible to manually reach systems designed to service it. The vessels contain about a dozen relief valves used to protect the pipes from bursting due to excessive pressure.  If these are left manually opened, there is a path for water to flow into the reactor vessel itself.

“But the flow rate by that route is very small,” said Lochbaum. “It’s about 40 gallons a minute.”    

The government has not explained why it is adding boric acid and if the acid is being used to prevent criticality in the reactor or in the spent fuel pool. A spokesman for the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC said the boric acid was being added as a “precautionary measure,” but he did not know what the precaution was for.

The reactor’s control rods are made of boron, and these were inserted when the trouble began to stop the ongoing fission. Under normal circumstances, therefore, no additional boric acid would be needed.

If, however, some of the fuel bundles were damaged and broken, those pieces would lie on the bottom of the reactor vessel and can approach criticality – unless they are neutralized. Boric acid could be inserted to prevent  those broken pieces from reaching critical mass within the reactor.

They could also be used to help prevent a far more serious melt down in the spent fuel pool. The explosion, said Lochbaum, as dramatic as it was, was not likely to have been strong enough to destroy the walls of the spent fuel pools, which usually consist of about five feet of reinforced concrete.

But water containing boric acid has to continually circulate in the pool to keep the bundles cool. When the power was lost at the site, the cooling system for the pools stopped. And the batteries used to try and restore cooling to the reactor vessel itself are not strong enough to also operate cooling systems for pool. On average, the water in these pools would heat up and evaporate to the point where the tops of the fuel bundles were exposed about 24 hours after the cooling system shut down.

In addition, if the explosion knocked debris from the roof into the pool, it could interfere with natural convection cooling some of the fuel bundles, or even break some of them, sending the irradiated fuel chunks to the bottom of the pool where they could reach critical mass. Boric acid could be added to the pools to help prevent that development.

“They got a one-two punch,” said Lochbaum. “If it had just been the earthquake, or just the tsunami, we wouldn’t even be talking about this. But the combination of nature was more than they could handle. It doesn’t seem that they have lost control yet. But they have definitely run out of options. If those solutions – the sea water and the boric acid – don’t work, there are no more arrows in the quiver. They have shot everything they have, they have run out of options and there is nothing left.”

In the growing advent of natural disaster around the world, I saw a program on The National Geographic Channel concerning the life processes on Earth after the eradication of humans. The program mentioned nuclear power plants, another very possible disaster that we might like to keep our eyes on as we cautiously creep into the future in these times of increasing catastrophe.

The short-term and long-term effects of neglecting the power plant are inconceivable. Just ten days without maintenance, an unmanned nuclear power plant would result in a nuclear explosion 500 times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, leaving a wasteland the size of the state of Alabama. The program explained that plutonium would to last for 250,000 years and spread radioactive waste across the land while carried on the winds, contaminating everything in its path. The radiation would damage the chlorophyl in all plant life that it came into contact with.

If you slept through your biology class and smeared your notes with drool, I’ll remind you that chlorophyl is a key component for photosynthesis and results in the green coloration in plant life. With the chlorophyl radioactively damaged, all tainted plants would turn a malevolent crimson red. Combine that with the ash and debris that settled and the radioactivity, and you’ve got tainted badlands.

I made a quick Google search and I found that much of the continental United States harbors nuclear power plants, especially in the East, but with toxic plutonium carried on the winds safety may not even be possible in the continental US or even this part of the world. Who knows? The “safe” states are as follows: Montana, North Dakota, western South Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and West Texas.

Photo original and manipulated version uploaded by Ryan Hochstatter. Retains all rights.

Federal regulators have fined Florida Power & Light $70,000 for improperly maintaining hundreds of tons of highly radioactive spent fuel at their Turkey Point 3 power plant near Homestead, in violation of their operating license.

The fine concludes a  six month investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission  into the degradation of chemicals in the spent fuel pool designed to prevent fission between the thousands of 12-fot-long fuel rods in an under water storage pool.

This is the second nuclear facility owned by FP&L to come under NRC fire in two months. In May, continuing problems with critical safety systems at the St. Lucie nuclear power plant resulted in the NRC downgrading the site’s status to among the worst run facilities in the nation.

The NRC dropped the plant’s designation in its color coded rating system from green – which is given to the best run plants – to yellow, the second lowest designation, asserting that the problems at the plant “have substantial safety significance.”

At present, none of the nation’s 104 operating nuclear reactors have a “red” rating, the lowest safety classification, and only the Browns Ferry plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority currently shares the “yellow” rating. The downgrade means the plant will be subject to the regulatory agency’s highest level of scrutiny, with frequent inspections by special teams supplementing the daily reviews by on site, resident inspectors.

The problem cited at Turkey Point 3 by the NRC involves one of the most critical safety functions in a nuclear facility. That is, failure to prevent fission in the 1,200 fuel assemblies in the spent fuel pool would cause them to heat up, just as they would in the operating reactor. If that happened, the water covering the fuel rods would boil away. That would allow the exposed fuel rods to reach “critical mass” and erupt in a nuclear fire and meltdown releasing far more lethal radiation than an actual nuclear explosion.

In this case, both NRC and FP&L officials assert that there was never any danger to the public of possible loss of control of the spent fuel pool. But there were fluctuations in its safety margins, and the methods used at the nuclear plant to restore these margins and maintain control of the pool were not approved as part of FP&L’s operating license.

Due to the complexity of commercial nuclear power plants and the wide-ranging ramifications following a catastrophe, every major aspect of the plant’s operation must be documented in series of design drawings showing every circuit and system. These form the “design basis” on which a company is licensed to operate a plant. Any deviation from the design basis must be tested by the NRC for its effectiveness and approved as a licensed deviation. Violating the design basis can result in the NRC ordering increased inspections, fines, or a shut down.

In this case, the racks holding the 1,200 fuel assemblies have panels of Boraflex – a neutron-absorbing Boron compound – which slide between the fuel rods and acts like a magnet, capturing the neutrons. A decade ago, the NRC issued a general “information notice” to utilities that the Boraflex may dissolve over time and lose effectiveness. That is of particular concern to older plants like Turkey Point 3, which was designed in the 1950s and 1960s and came on line in 1972. It’s fuel pool is licensed to house 1,500 fuel assemblies.

According to NRC spokesman Roger Hannah, Turkey Point 3 officials realized at some point last year that the effectiveness of the Boraflex was waning and they added a soluble boron solution to the spent fuel pool water rather than replace the Boraflex panels in their storage racks. FP&L officials did not notify the NRC when they discovered the problem, nor did they have permission from the regulatory agency to unilaterally use an alternative solution.

In a statement accompanying the announcement of the fine, the federal regulators said that “in December 2009, the NRC became aware that the neutron-absorbing material called Boraflex in the Unit 3 spent fuel pool had degraded below the levels spelled out in the plant’s design basis documents. Although FPL had taken compensatory measures including the addition of soluble boron, the regulatory requirements that ensure the spent fuel pool remains safe were not met.

“The company’s actions ensured the pool’s condition did not pose an immediate safety concern, but the NRC found that FPL did not promptly identify and correct the condition.”

Hannah said “the important thing is that this did not rise to a criticality issue because they added increasing levels of soluble boron.  But that was not allowed in the technical specifications and was not in compliance with the regulations.”

The problem with the Boraflex coating is that it flakes off over time, in the form of deposits of silica salts and boron in the pool, and can cause fluctuations in the temperature of the spent fuel pool itself. In this case, the material had been decaying and accumulating for quite some time before Turkey Point 3 operators noticed that there was a problem.

“If they had seen this early on and filed for a license amendment to change the design basis documents,” said Hannah, “or had come back with a different solution which would have been part of the license amendment that would have been OK. But it was some time before they actually noticed and reported this.”

FP&L spokesman Michael Waldron said “we monitor the spent fuel pools on a real time basis and at any given time we understand what is going on in the spent fuel pool.”

Waldron did not, however, address the issue of the reporting delay cited by the NRC, why the company belatedly realized it had a problem, or why it did not seek permission for an unapproved solution to the boron problem.

“We did the appropriate testing,” said Waldron. “Through engineering analysis, we determined that there was some degradation out of only one cell (among 1,200). Based on that, we took compensatory measures that more than offset any issues related to this one cell.

“We also inserted control rods to stop the movement of neutrons. There was never any safety issue. We manage our spent fuel pools extremely conservatively.”

By Roger Witherspoon

The unfolding events in the Gulf of Mexico underscore the importance of journalists not falling for the industrial mantra that catastrophic events can’t happen today because of “robust” safety systems and “built in redundancy” that ensure environmentally safe operations.

Oil companies have been drilling in the Gulf for decades and their work has come a long way since the 1979 blowout of the Ixtoc 1 oil well in the Bay of Campeche. That disaster gushed for months and dumped at least 140 million gallons of crude into the waters on the Mexican side of the Gulf.

The technology has improved markedly since then, however, and the revenues flowing in to the coffers of Gulf state governments and political campaigns have grown even further.. Yet the script is an old one. The BP well which exploded, burned and sank with the bodies of 11 oil workers incorporated the latest safety technology, including a 450-ton, four-part, “fail safe” clamp on the ocean floor which was intended to shut down the well at the interface between the water and the sea floor.

Each of its four clamps should have been able to do the job — a redundancy which the industry claimed guaranteed that blowouts could not happen again. And they haven’t had one for 20 years, though there are some 4,000 rigs out there.

It was this notion of technological infallibility which led President Obama to declare April 2 that: “It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs; they came from the refineries onshore.”

But the notion that it was impossible to have a catastrophe was always arrogant and never defensible. To hold the belief in technological infallibility so strongly that disaster preparations are neither contemplated nor enacted is logically unjustifiable and reckless in the extreme. For journalists to parrot that line like paid stenographers rather than examining it thoroughly and questioning its premise is professionally indefensible.

Only weeks after the spill did federal officials or the mainstream media bother reading BP’s emergency environmental plan and find it was fiction, replete with statements from dead scientists and plans to save the habitats of walruses and other creatures never found in the Gulf. Even worse was the discovery that the other major oil drilling companies had each submitted the identical creative writing for federal approval – and got it since no one in authority or in the newsrooms bothered to read the documents.

It was pathetic to hear Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Dr. Lisa Jackson state in a May 24 press conference that there were no emergency plans and no adequate systems for coping with the spreading oil spill because  “we were told over and over by the industry that it could not happen. So we have few tools out there.”

The same mantra is incorporated in President Obama’s energy legislation, which would allow the nuclear industry to tap the taxpayers for some $1.2 trillion to build “safe” nuclear power plants. In discussions of the next generation of nuclear power, all too often uncritical reporters have generated stories stating as fact that the new breed of reactors — which exist only on paper and, where they have progressed from the drawing boards, have failed all tests — are so safe that they can be placed in residential neighborhoods with no problems.

Such willful dispensation of critical thinking is understandable with politicians, who are paid by energy companies to win elections. But reporters are paid to represent the public interest.

There is no technology – from roller skates and clothes irons, to oil platforms to nuclear reactors – which can’t be screwed up by the humans that make it, operate it or, in the tragic case of the Deepwater Horizon, factor finances into decisions about how thin their critical safety margins need to be. And human decision makers playing the odds with public safety are not helped by the unforgiving real world – in BP’s case, the intense, ton-per-square-inch pressures generated by the weight of four miles of seawater and rock.

In writing about any technological development coming through a region of this ecologically diverse country – gas lines, high tension lines, reactors, airports, chemical plants, etc – journalists do readers a disservice if they quote officials touting how safe their operations are without giving equal emphasis to the possibility of calamity. The potential damage is always just as important as the potential boon to the local economy. The documents which are now being reported about were available long before the Deepwater Horizon blew up and sank.

That mindset on the part of regulators is not limited to the discredited Minerals Management Service.

Twenty years before 9/11/2001, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had the foresight to order a study of the potential impact of commercial jets on nuclear reactor sites. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ analysis found that the damage from such a crash directly into a containment building or spent fuel pool, at speeds above 466 miles per hour, would be catastrophic. But the risk assessment prepared in the 1980s by Consolidated Edison of New York, which owned the Indian Point nuclear power plant found that the odds of a crash were so slight that it did not warrant much consideration. That conclusion came despite the presence of five major airports in the region and the fact that the Hudson River landing corridor was just 250 feet directly above the plants.

Con Edison did raise the issue of a hijacked aircraft ramming the reactors, but concluded “a commercial jet could cause extensive damage but the notion of a deliberate crash into the containment building is so out of the range of probability that we have not calculated odds for it in this risk analysis.”

It would be 20 years before a hijacked United Airlines jet flew directly over the twin containment buildings jutting into the midst of the Hudson River from the promontory at Indian Point en route to their destination at the World Trade Center. The federal 9/11 Commission would later conclude that Indian Point was the terrorists’ backup target.

In this case, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission belatedly recognized that terrorism cannot be dismissed. Unfortunately, there is no experience to factor such an event into the long-established formulas used for risk assessment. As a result, the NRC has decreed that preventing terrorism is a federal responsibility and the commercial nuclear operators do not have to plan for such an event.

Recognizing the possibility of a nuclear disaster represents progress, of sorts, from the discredited view of oil industry regulators that a disaster is impossible. But the outcome would be more disastrous for those living in the wide ranging path of meandering radioactive clouds than it is for the millions of citizens and businesses affected by the lakes of crude oil meandering a various depths throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

It would be unfortunate if the spreading calamity in the Gulf did not awaken the mainstream media to the potential for catastrophes all around.

and

Great Work Movement of Malate Church
cordially invite you to the opening of

Fallout: the human cost of nuclear catastrophe

a photo exhibition of victims of nuclear disasters

at the Jubilee Center, Malate Church

28 February 2009, 10:00 AM

These dramatic photos in black and white were taken by World Press Photo Winner, Robert Knoth, and first exhibited in April 2006 on the occasion of the 20^th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster. To date, the exhibit has been hosted by more than 50 galleries in 30 countries in four continents.

The images give a human face to the impacts of a nuclear disaster and allow us a glimpse into a future that chooses a nuclear path.

For further details, please contact:

Beau Baconguis, Greenpeace: Mobile. 09178715257

Arturo Tahup, Great Work Movement: Mobile 09183672059