Tank at Hanford nuclear site leaking radioactive liquids, Washington governor says

usnews

U.S. Department Of Energy

The disposal facility for mixed and low-level radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state is shown in an aerial image.

By Mike Baker and Shannon Dininny, The Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- A tank that holds radioactive liquids is leaking at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, Wash. Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday, raising concerns about the integrity of other storage facilities at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The U.S. Department of Energy said liquid levels are decreasing in one of 177 underground tanks at the nuclear reservation. Monitoring wells near the tank have not detected higher radiation levels, the agency said. Inslee said the leak could be in the range of 150 gallons to 300 gallons over the course of a year.

"I am alarmed about this on many levels," Inslee said at a Friday afternoon news conference. "This raises concerns, not only about the existing leak ... but also concerning the integrity of the other single shell tanks of this age."

The tanks hold millions of gallons of a highly radioactive stew left from decades of plutonium production for nuclear weapons.

Inslee said the state was told such problems had been dealt with years ago and were under control.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the federal government must not waiver in its commitment to clean up the highly contaminated site, Inslee told reporters.

The tank in question contains about 447,000 gallons of sludge, a mixture of solids and liquids with a mud-like consistency. The tank, built in the 1940s, is known to have leaked in the past, but was stabilized in 1995 when all liquids that could be pumped out of it were removed.

Inslee said the tank is the first to have been documented to be losing liquids since all Hanford tanks were stabilized in 2005.

At the height of World War II, the federal government created Hanford in the remote sagebrush of eastern Washington as part of a hush-hush project to build the atomic bomb. The site ultimately produced plutonium for the world's first atomic blast and for one of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, effectively ending the war.

Plutonium production continued there through the Cold War, but today, Hanford is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. Cleanup will cost billions of dollars and last decades.

Central to that cleanup is the removal of millions of gallons of a highly toxic, radioactive stew — enough to fill dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools — from 177 aging, underground tanks. Over time, many of those tanks have leaked, threatening the groundwater and the neighboring Columbia River, the largest waterway in the Pacific Northwest.

Construction of a $12.3 billion plant to convert the waste to a safe, stable form is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Technical problems have slowed the project, and several workers have raised lawsuits in recent months, claiming they were retaliated against for raising concerns about the plant's design and safety.

Radioactive Fish Near Fukushima Suggest Ongoing Contamination

Scientific American/ David Biello

RADIOACTIVE FISH: Some source of radioactive contamination is causing bottom-dwelling fish, like the greenling pictured here, to absorb high levels of radionuclides. Image: Flickr.com / Brian Gratwicke

The fish off Fukushima remain radioactive more than a year after the earthquake and subsequent tsunami triggered three meltdowns at the Daiichi nuclear power plant. In fact, bottom-dwelling greenling fish caught in August 2012 bore the highest levels of radioactive particles seen to date—25,000 Becquerels per kilogram. (A becquerel is a unit of the rate of radioactive decay—or radiation emitted by a substance.) That is 250 times higher than current Japanese safety standards, a key reason fishing off Fukushima remains prohibited.
The findings suggest that contaminated water is still leaking from the stricken power plant, the sea bottom itself is now laced with radionuclides, or both. Concentrations in the ocean water itself remain below any human health concern but they do pass into fish that swim through those waters.
"When fish 'drink' they take [cesium] and other salts up from the water they are swimming in, that accumulates in the muscle tissue," explains marine chemist Ken Buessler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who compiled the analysis of publicly released Japanese fisheries data and published it in Science on October 26. But the fish also shed that cesium if they swim in uncontaminated waters, as has been seen in tuna that migrated from near Japan to near San Diego, suggesting that levels in fish should decrease over time. For this reason, most of the fish caught off Japan's northeastern coast are not radioactive. But roughly 40 percent of bottom-dwelling fish, such as flatfish or halibut, caught off the coast adjacent to Fukushima bear radionuclides above the Japanese food safety standard of 100 becquerels per kilogram.*
According to a response to questions from Scientific American that was prepared by staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, ingesting fish at that level "would only produce a dose that is a small fraction of the dose that people receive from natural levels." For example, as Buessler notes, fish caught off Japan in June 2011 boasted levels of potassium-40—a naturally occurring radionuclide—10 times higher than those of radioactive cesium from Fukushima. More >>

Radioactive Found in California Tap Water

Radiation from Japan rained on Berkeley during recent storms at levels that exceeded drinking water standards by 181 times and has been detected in multiple milk samples...

Radiation falling with rain can cover grass that is eaten by cows and other animals. It can also fall on food crops or accumulate in reservoirs that are used for irrigation or drinking water. Seafood can also be affected. ...

A rooftop water monitoring program managed by UC Berkeley's Department of Nuclear Engineering detected substantial spikes in rain-borne iodine-131 during torrential downpours a week ago. ...

Japan Radiation Detected in 15 States and in Milk Samples in Washington State

Japan radiation detected in at least 15 states and in milk samples in Washington state

Ethan A. Huff,
Natural News
March 31, 2011

Radioactive isotopes unique to the Fukushima disaster are now being detected in at least 15 US states, according to recent reports from CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/2...). And the Associated Press (AP) has issued a report claiming that milk samples taken in Washington state have tested positive for low levels of the same radioactive component, Iodine-131, raising concerns about the true widespread effects of the Fukushima nuclear fallout (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...).

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and various state and local authorities continue to repeat the same empty reassurances that all detected levels of radiation — whether they be in air, water, or food — are far below levels of concern, and that people do not need to worry or do anything in response. But is this sound advice?

Earlier in the week, several nuclear facilities in North and South Carolina, as well as in Florida, reportedly detected low levels of Iodine-131 in the air (http://www.naturalnews.com/031881_r...). That same radiation has also been detected across the West Coast, as well as in northeastern states like Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, which clearly indicates that Fukushima radiation has made its way throughout the US, at least in very low levels.

But now, reports have been issued claiming that milk samples from Washington state have also turned up contaminated with Iodine-131. The levels were allegedly far lower than the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concern limits for the radioactive particles, but they are not necessarily safe even at the levels being detected.

According to the FDA "Radiation Safety" website, the Derived Intervention Level (DIL) for Iodine-131 is 170 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) (http://www.fda.gov/newsevents/publi...). AWall Street Journalreport of the milk incident explains that the Washington samples contained only 0.8 picocuries per liter (pCi/l), or 0.03 Bq/kg. That level is clearly far lower than the FDA's DIL for Iodine-131, but is any level of this radiation actually "safe"? And what about the other more serious types of radioactive particles being emitted from Fukushima that authorities appear to not even be looking for?

http://www.prisonplanet.com/japan-radiation-detected-in-at-least-15-states-an...

#CIA - #Al-Qaeda Ties, Webster Tarpley & Radiation Hits Spokane, WA - #AlexJones

Alex talks about the Pentagon running the rebel war in Libya and the al-Qaeda presence there. Alex is joined by author and researcher Webster Tarpley who will talk about the globalist operation in Libya and the presence of al-Qaeda. Alex also talks about the ongoing nuclear meltdown crisis in Fukushima, Japan, and the consequences for world health.

#Fukushima - Nuclear Titanic? Seawater radiation hits new high in Japan

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#Radioactivity : Port Hope, Ontario: What lies beneath

Waste Facility Operations Manager, David Boyce, locks the gate leading into the Welcome Waste Management Facility near Port Hope.

Yvonne Berg/FOR THE TORONTO STAR

In mid-November, when the weather was still gorgeous and tourists were still meandering through its picturesque downtown streets, Helen Caldicott sentenced Port Hope to death.

“It's a disaster,” the renowned doctor and anti-nuclear activist told a gathering of Port Hopers and a crush of reporters crammed into a hotel in Oshawa.

The mess can't be cleaned up, Caldicott said flatly of the low-level radioactive waste sprinkled around Port Hope.

“The entire town should be relocated and the Cameco refinery should be shut down.”

More  Here  >>

#Fukushima #plutonium leak comparable to #Chernobyl disaster

Japanese government is considering the construction of a containment shell at the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. It would be aimed at averting further radiation leaks in a crisis that is still described as 'grave'. The plan would involve the three most badly damaged reactors being covered with hi-tech material. The level of radiation measured in sea water near the site, is now said to be around three and a half thousand times higher than normal. Workers have been unsuccessfully trying to restore the cooling system at the facility, in what is now the worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl. RT spoke to nuclear energy expert Lars Polmeier, who says there are parallels with that disaster 25 years ago.

#Radiation Homecoming: RT in #Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

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US Nuclear Emergency Response Marines Being Sent to Japan

By LUIS MARTINEZ

The ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan has prompted the U.S. military to send a marine unit specializing in nuclear emergency response to be on hand if needed, ABC News has learned.

The ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan has prompted the U.S. military to send a marine unit specializing in nuclear emergency response to be on hand if needed, ABC News has learned.

Radiation Found In Massachusetts Rainwater

03/27/11 05:08 PM  
BOSTON -- Health officials said Sunday that one sample of Massachusetts rainwater has registered very low concentrations of radiation, most likely from the Japanese nuclear power plant damaged earlier this month by an earthquake and tsunami.
John Auerbach, the Massachusetts commissioner of public health, said that radioiodine-131 found in the sample – one of more than 100 that have been taken around the country – has a short life of only eight days. He said the drinking water supply in the state was unaffected and officials do not expect any health concerns.

More  Here

Workers trying to pump out radioactive water from Japan reactors

Two weeks after Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster, the number of people killed has climbed above 10,000. And there is a new alarm at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power station. Radiation levels have soared to 10,000 times above the safety limit.

As Al Jazeera's correspondent Wayne Hay reports from the capital Tokyo, people are on edge.

#Fukushima 43 Mile Contamination Levels Twice as High as Chernoby!

Prison Planet editor Paul Joseph Watson sits in while Alex is away. Paul talks with Christopher Busby, a British scientist and activist known for his work on the health effects of ionizing radiation.
http://www.llrc.org/

Radiation Released is NOT “Safe”

More Here

Japan Reactor Core May Have Been Breached

TOKYO -- Japanese nuclear safety officials said Friday that they suspect that the reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant may have breached, raising the possibility of more severe contamination to the environment.
"It is possible that somewhere at the reactor may have been damaged," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency. But he added that "our data suggest the reactor retains certain containment functions," implying that the damage may have occurred in Unit 3's reactor core but that it was limited.
Officials say the damage could instead have happened in other equipment, including piping or the spent fuel pool.

More  Here

Corp. Media Ignores Astronomical Fukushima Radiation Levels- Alex Jones

The Kyodo News Agency reports that radiation around the hobbled Fukushima nuclear plant is 1,600 times the normal level. The astounding figure was released to the media by the International Atomic Energy Agency officials on Monday.

#Radiation Plume Still Coming from Japan

#Japon: Radioactivity detected in nearby seawater [fish may be contaminated]

 

Bad news for sushi fans

From  Business Insider

 Bad news for sushi.  Read »

Alex Jones Calls The (NAREL) Live!

The National Air and Radiation Environmental Laboratory (NAREL) is a comprehensive environmental laboratory managed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA). NAREL is located on the Gunter Annex of Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, and provides services to a wide range of clients, including other EPA offices and Federal and State agencies. NAREL facilities incorporate state-of-the-art laboratory technology and equipment and include the latest health and safety techniques, as well as strict monitoring and control of laboratory emissions.

The NAREL staff are highly trained professionals with backgrounds including health physics, radiochemistry, engineering, biology, mathematics, and computer science. Fundamental to the NAREL mission is the commitment to developing and applying the most advanced methods for measuring environmental radioactivity and evaluating its risk to the public.
http://www.epa.gov/narel/

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