Nature reports blood abnormalities in monkeys near Fukushima

There was a recent report in Nature about two groups of monkeys.   One group was in Fukushima, and the other group was about 70 km away.  The report stated:

Compared with Shimokita monkeys, Fukushima monkeys had significantly low white and red blood cell counts, hemoglobin, and hematocrit, and the white blood cell count in immature monkeys showed a significant negative correlation with muscle cesium concentration. These results suggest that the exposure to some form of radioactive material contributed to hematological changes in Fukushima monkeys.

This study in a reliable journalSupports the notion that significant Injury to the bone marrow of monkeys has been caused by the radiation disaster at Fukushima.

On the endangered reactors list: Pilgrim and Columbia?

This article states that Gov. Devault Patrick of Massachusetts has expressed his opposition to the nuclear power plant run by Entergy in Plymouth Massachusetts. He goes on to say that the NRC does not care what any government officials say. There is an effort to demand cooling towers at Plymouth. ( Actually, the towers heat the environment. ) The cost of putting in cooling towers may be an economic spike in to the heart of the nuclear vampires.

GreenWorld

Massachusetts Governor Patrick Deval told a group of anti-nuclear protestors yesterday that he supports shutdown of the Pilgrim reactor near Cape Cod. He added that he would write a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners asking them to close the reactor but said, “It doesn’t matter what I think.”

Massachusetts’ Pilgrim reactor.

The NRC quickly made clear that indeed, it doesn’t care what Deval, or any other governor, thinks. “We would only act to shut down the plant if we identified significant and pervasive problems that could call into question the facility’s safety,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said in an email. “We have not seen issues of that magnitude at Pilgrim.”

In other words, the NRC says only it has the authority to close reactors, and it doesn’t have to listen to officials elected by the public.

But history shows it is not exactly true that only the NRC…

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Nuclear reactors and childhood leukemia: the risk exists.

This reports to be a mega study of all the studies looking at the incidence of childhood leukemia within 5 km around nuclear power plants. This study reports that there is a 37% increase. Report goes on to stay that there is great denial about the dangers of radiation in the United States, Much like the denial about the dangers of cigarette smoking

GreenWorld

Part of the massive Sellafield nuclear complex in the U.K. Photo from Greenpeace UK.

The issue of whether children living near nuclear reactors are more susceptible to childhood leukemia has long been a controversial issue, especially in Europe, where numerous studies have found significantly increased risk for leukemia among children living near reactors.

In 1990, a particularly noted report (the Gardner report) found the risk of leukemia among children near the U.K.’s Sellafield facility to be seven times higher than for children living away from nuclear facilities.

Here in the U.S., the controversy has been far less conspicuous, despite a few similar studies around selected reactors, perhaps because the nuclear industry has been more successful at quashing such studies as soon as they appear. 

This week in the U.K., a new study conducted through the auspices of Newcastle University purports to show that there is no increased risk of leukemia…

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WIPP fire, great heat produced

There was a recent report produced by the experts at Los Alamos  about the fire at the WIPP facilities:

Based solely on the photographic information it appears that some
surfaces on the LANL drum may have reached temperatures of up to 700-870°C10 and the waste in a large portion of the room reached temperatures up to 170°C11 to 230°C12.

The drum in question had recently been transferred.   The drums are packed with nuclear grade catt litter, and then compressed to 1/5 their original size. 

United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) has 10 major flaws

This blog gives a report by the IPPNW, the international physicians for the prevention of nuclear war, outlining fundamental flaws in the report given by the UN. The UN report suggests that there will be no significant problems related to radiation released at Fukushima.

nuclear-news

Fukushima: Bad and Getting Worse – Global Physicians Issue Scathing Critique of UN Report on Fukushima  CounterPunch, by JOHN LaFORGE, 20 July 14 Physicians find ten grave failures in UN report

The majority of the IPPNW’s report details 10 major errors, flaws or discrepancies in the UNSCEAR paper and explains study’s omissions, underestimates, inept comparisons, misinterpretations and unwarranted conclusions.

1. The total amount of radioactivity released by the disaster was underestimated by UNSCEAR and its estimate was based on disreputable sources of information. UNSCEAR ignored 3.5 years of nonstop emissions of radioactive materials “that continue unabated,” and only dealt with releases during the first weeks of the disaster. UNSCEAR relied on a study by the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) which, the IPPNW points out, “was severely criticized by the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission … for its collusion with the nuclear industry.” The independent Norwegian Institute for Air Research’s…

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The foul legacy of mounting radioactive nuclear trash

The problems relating to nuclear waste have not yet been addressed. This blog addresses several of the issues. The cost of cleanup will run into the billions and will last for decades and decades. The article suggests that nuclear waste must be moved away, but there is. in fact, no away. Meanwhile, the cumulative radiation will lead to much morbidity and mortality, which have both their own moral social and financial costs.

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The nuclear option still dogged by waste disposal problems http://www.independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/the-nuclear-option-still-dogged-by-waste-disposal-problems,6675  Climate News Network 16 July 2014 Nuclear power is seen as one of the possible solutions to climate change, but the recent closure of five U.S. power stations is forcing the industry to face up at last to the damaging legacy of how to deal with radioactive waste. Paul Brown fromClimate News Network reports.  

LONG-TERM employment is hard to find these days, but one career that can be guaranteed to last a lifetime is dealing with nuclear waste.

The problem and how to solve it is becoming critical. Dozens of nuclear power stations in the U.S., Russia, Japan, and across Europe and Central Asia are nearing the end of their lives.

And when these stations close, the spent fuel has to be taken out, safely stored or disposed of, and then the pressure vessels…

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Tokyo in danger from Fukushima radiation, says Japanese doctor

This blog reports on the great variety of possible illnesses related to low-level radiation exposure. The changes in blood cell levels suggest that there is an ongoing injury to the children’s bone marrow. The bone marrow contains stem cells, which, when injured, can lead to malignancies long into the future.
The early warning signs of radiation injury can be nonspecific.
The Japanese government has been committed to a policy that no significant injury has occurred. How can the truth come out under such circumstances?

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Japan Doctor: “Tokyo should no longer be inhabited” — Everyone here is a victim of Fukushima — People truly suffering — Bleeding under skin, urinary hemorrhaging — Children’s blood tests started changing last year — Time running short… up to physicians to save our citizens and future generations http://enenews.com/japan-doctor-tokyo-longer-be-inhabited-everyone-living-victim-fukushima-disaster-began-notice-childrens-blood-test-results-around-mid-2013-time-running-short-physicians-save-citizens-future-g?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Dr. Shigeru Mita’s essay published in the newsletter of Association of Doctors in Kodaira (Tokyo), translated by WNSCR, July 16, 2014: Why did I leave Tokyo? To my fellow doctors, I closed the clinic in March 2014, which had served the community of Kodaira for more than 50 years, since my father’s generation, and I have started a new Mita clinic in Okayama-city on April 21. […] It is clear that Eastern Japan and Metropolitan Tokyo have been contaminated with radiation […] contamination in the east part [of Tokyo] is 1000-4000 Bq/kg and the west part is 300-1000…

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Nuclear Hotseat #160: WIPP Radiation Accident Update w/Don Hancock, Voices from Japan w/Filmmaker Yumiko Hayakawa- Temp Mirror site

This blog contains a link to Harvey Wasserman’s recent blog about 50 reasons to be suspicious of the nuclear industry. This is an excellent summary with links.

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The Nuclear Hotseat webpage is having difficulties – Podcast is available here for this week

DOWNLOAD HERE:

http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/download/audioacrobat-10760-u-1713568-s-1.audio.mp3

INTERVIEWS:

• WIPP ACCIDENT – Don Hancock, Director of Southwest Research and Information Center in Albuquerque, NM, brings us up to date again about the February 14 underground explosion and radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site in Carlsbad, NM.LINK TO WIPP TOWN HALL MEETING LIVESTREAM:  http://new.livestream.com/rrv/Thursday, July 24 from 5:30 to 6:30 Mountain Time
  First and third Thursdays of the month.
  WIPP TOWN HALL MEETING ARCHIVES:
  http://www.wipp.energy.gov/wipprecovery/photo_video.html

• VOICES FROM JAPAN – Filmmaker Yumiko Hayakawa on TEPCO’s subtle censorship of her film about Fukushima refugee and anti-nuclear activist Setsuko Kida, “A Woman from Fukushima.”  The film was recently a selection at the Uranium Film Festival in Rio De Janiero.
• SOARCA – State of the Art Reactor Consequence Analyses – the NRC’s flawed computer program for calculating the…

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Fukushima has 9 days to prevent ‘unsafe’ overheating

This blog reports the difficulty of turning theory into practice. There is on going corrosion of the cooling system. The ice wall is not working as well as planned. Over time unforeseen complications develop.

nuclear-news

http://rt.com/news/170800-fukushima-water-leak-temperatures/

Fukushima operator TEPCO has been forced to switch off the cooling system at mothballed Reactor Unit 5, after it was discovered that it had been leaking water. In nine days, if the system is not repaired, temperatures will exceed dangerous levels.

Engineers have discovered that 1,300 liters of water leaked from a cooling system intended to stabilize the temperature of the spent fuel at the Reactor Unit 5, which was offline but loaded with fuel rods when the plant was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

The source of the leak was a 3 mm-diameter hole near a flow valve, a statement published by the Japanese energy giant on Sunday asserts. However it is unclear from company data if the location of the opening has been discovered, or whether it was calculated with flow measurements.

At the time when the cooling system was switched off at…

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Computer models do not reflect reality at Vermont Yankee

There was a recent report on VPR about the thermal discharge from Vermont Yankee. It states that fhe Computer models used by Entergy did not correspond with reality.

“The actual temperature of the river was higher than what the model predicted it would be. And we used Entergy’s own data at their own monitoring stations to prove that,” he said.  But the Connecticut River Watershed Council had argued that the temperature model used by Entergy Vermont Yankee did not reflect the true conditions in the river. Deen said the Agency of Natural Resources agreed with this argument when it drafted the permit.

Frequently in the literature about nuclear science there are references to what the computer models predict.   Many of the models are too complex for me to understand. However, I do understand the concept of thermal pollution, as I have discussed in a previous blog.  It seems that the scientific principle is that if  models do not reflect reality,  they should be corrected.   It is unsound to use models that do not reflect reality and use them for the purpose of compliance with regulations.   This seems to be an example of using bad science to support bad politics.  Meanwhile, the Connecticut River has lost its designation as a cold river in the shad run has declined.