[audio] Ongoing St. Louis Nuclear Nightmare: West Lake Landfill Fire – Dawn Chapman, Jan Huber – Nuclear Hotseat #306 via Nuclear Hotseat

This Week’s Featured Interviews:

  • Dawn Chapman, one of the founders of Just Moms StL who lives only a few miles away from the West Lake Landfill.
  • Jan Huber bought her home in North St. Louis in 2000, never understanding that it was one mile away from a nuclear time bomb that had been going off for years.

Numnutz of the Week (for outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

It wasn’t bad enough that we’ve trashed our own planet with ever-growing levels of nuclear radiation; now we bring our bad actions to a whole new planet… and on Earth Day!

Listen to Ongoing St. Louis Nuclear Nightmare: West Lake Landfill Fire – Dawn Chapman, Jan Huber – Nuclear Hotseat #306

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帰還困難区域の山火事 鎮火の見通し立たず via NHK News Web

東京電力福島第一原発の事故で帰還困難区域となっている福島県浪江町の山林の火事は、4日で発生から6日目となりましたが、鎮火の見通しが立たず、消防や自衛隊などは5日も消火活動を続けることにしています。福島県によりますと、周辺の放射線量に目立った変化はないということです。

先月29日、福島県浪江町井手の山林から出火し、これまでに周辺の20ヘクタール以上が焼け、現在も南風の影響で徐々に広がっています。

今のところ人や建物への被害はないということですが、現場は原発事故の影響で放射線量が比較的高く、立ち入りが厳しく制限されている帰還困難区域で、消火活動は通常より難しくなっています。

4日も福島県や災害派遣要請を受けた自衛隊のヘリコプターなどが上空から消火活動を行ったほか、地上では消防と自衛隊の合わせておよそ240人が、放射性物質の付着を防ぐ防護服を着て消火活動を行いましたが、鎮火の見通しはまだ立っていません。

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Workers prepare to tackle Hanford’s potentially deadly spill via Tri-City Herald

The initial work has begun to clean up a spill of Hanford waste so radioactive that it would be lethal within two minutes of contact.

Workers have entered the airlock of the nuclear reservation’s 324 Building for the first time in 15 years. 

Beneath the Cold War-era building lies the spill of cesium and strontium, a nasty surprise found by workers in 2010.

The building, which is about 1,000 feet from the Columbia River, has been left standing to provide shielding from the radiation beneath it until contamination can be removed using remotely operated equipment.

Entering and cleaning out the airlock is an early step toward installing the equipment to clean up the spill and then tear down the building.

[…]

The 324 Building, built in the mid-1960s and operated until 1996, housed thick-walled rooms called “hot cells” where workers used remotely operated equipment to perform work with highly radioactive materials.

As workers were decontaminating the building for demolition in 2010, they discovered the cesium and strontium that had leaked from the B Cell into the soil.

A spill during work in the 1980s for Germany is suspected of making its way through the cracked lining of a sump at the bottom of the cell. Workers were fabricating concentrated cesium and strontium into a heat source for Germany to test a repository for radioactive waste, which emits heat.

By stopping the planned demolition when the spill was discovered and leaving the building standing, the structure not only provides a barrier against the radiation, it acts as an umbrella. Precipitation could carry contamination deeper in the soil toward the groundwater.

The 324 Building is one of only a few buildings still standing in the 300 Area, as more than 170 buildings in the Hanford complex just north of Richland have been demolished as part of environmental cleanup over the last decade.

[…]

At Hanford’s Maintenance and Storage Facility, a 28,000-square-foot building no longer needed to serve the deactivated Fast Flux Test Facility, some of the testing for the 324 Building project is being done.

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Book Review: Understanding the Imaginary War: Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90 edited by Matthew Grant and Benjamin Ziemann via LSE

In Understanding the Imaginary War: Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90, editors Matthew Grant and Benjamin Ziemann offer a collection focusing on how the unknowable and inconceivable – nuclear war – was necessarily imagined during the Cold War period. April Curtiswelcomes this as a valuable contribution to understanding the cultural history of the Cold War that also serves as a reminder of its continued impact on contemporary international relations. 

The world existed in a precarious state of duality during the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union, the only two superpowers, were both at war and at peace. Nuclear weapons — commonly shortened to ‘the bomb’ — made a nuclear holocaust feasible, and yet also served as credible deterrence against such an event. Understanding the Imaginary War: Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90, edited by Matthew Grant and Benjamin Ziemannis a collection of cultural history essays exploring experiences of this unique duality. The book covers a wide breadth of communities and topics focusing on individual nations, such as Britain, the US, the USSR and Japan, as well as more narrow groups, such as the Catholic community, physicians, nuclear scientists and the imagery of nuclear war in US government films.

[…]

Metaphors were another tool used to conceptualise the destruction that a nuclear war would bring. The world struggled to create a distinction between the known —conventional warfare — and the unknown — nuclear warfare. Scientists promised that a nuclear war would be more destructive than World War II, yet how this could be possible was difficult for the public to grasp. Jason Dawsey’s chapter on philosopher and anti-nuclear activist Günther Anders argues that in order to imagine what the war of the future would look like, it was necessary to turn to a book from the past: the Bible. Anders believed a gap had formed between technology and humanity’s ability to imagine the destructive powers of its own invention. Despite not being religious himself, Anders used religious apocalyptic eschatology in order to bridge this gulf as the Bible’s imagery seemed the only thing capable of conceptualising the devastating potential of nuclear war. He hoped that if humanity was able to imagine nuclear war clearly, nuclear weapons would be eliminated. Dawsey’s essay provides an excellent juxtaposition with Daniel Gerster’s essay on Catholic anti-communism in West Germany and the USA. Here, Gerster argues that Catholics who spoke out against nuclear weapons rarely employed apocalyptic imagery, but instead kept their arguments abstract in order to increase their credibility.

[…]

Understanding the Imaginary War is useful both as a historical tool, but also as a reminder that nuclear weapons still exist, and that nuclear war is still a very real possibility. If anything, the current political situation between Russia and the United States, and especially the inclusion of Article 27 in Russia’s 2014 Military Doctrine relating to the possibility of using nuclear weapons to respond to a conventional attack, shows that emotions felt during the Cold War still affect contemporary relations.

Read more at Book Review: Understanding the Imaginary War: Culture, Thought and Nuclear Conflict, 1945-90 edited by Matthew Grant and Benjamin Ziemann 

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川内原発専門委座長が九電から2億円 研究受託「判断に影響ない」via 西日本新聞

九州電力川内原発(鹿児島県薩摩川内市)の安全性などを検証する県の専門委員会の座長を務める宮町宏樹鹿児島大大学院教授(火山物理学)が、九電から南九州の地下構造を調べる約2億円の研究を受託していたことが分かった。宮町教授は3日、県庁で記者会見し、公平性が保てないとの指摘に「事実を曲げることも、専門委の判断に影響することも全くない」と説明した。

研究は姶良カルデラを含む南九州の地上や海中に約500台の地震計を設置。人工地震の地震波を読み取り地下構造や深部のマグマだまりを解析する。2017年度から3年間の予定。

(略)

宮町教授は「研究成果に口出しなしを条件に受託した。原発に不利なデータも公表する。火山は鹿児島特有のテーマ」と述べ、研究結果は専門委でも議論の素材にすると強調した。県原子力安全対策課は「受託は個人の問題。今後も技術的見地から助言を頂くことに変わりない」としている。

宮町教授は13~16年度、九電から離島周辺の地震研究を6千万円で受託、グループ企業から寄付500万円を受けたことも判明している。

全文は川内原発専門委座長が九電から2億円 研究受託「判断に影響ない」

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Resuspension and atmospheric transport of radionuclides due to wildfires near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2015: An impact assessment via Scientific Reports

17 May 2016

Abstract

In April and August 2015, two major fires in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) caused concerns about the secondary radioactive contamination that might have spread over Europe. The present paper assessed, for the first time, the impact of these fires over Europe. About 10.9 TBq of 137Cs, 1.5 TBq of 90Sr, 7.8 GBq of 238Pu, 6.3 GBq of 239Pu, 9.4 GBq of 240Pu and 29.7 GBq of 241Am were released from both fire events corresponding to a serious event. The more labile elements escaped easier from the CEZ, whereas the larger refractory particles were removed more efficiently from the atmosphere mainly affecting the CEZ and its vicinity. During the spring 2015 fires, about 93% of the labile and 97% of the refractory particles ended in Eastern European countries. Similarly, during the summer 2015 fires, about 75% of the labile and 59% of the refractory radionuclides were exported from the CEZ with the majority depositing in Belarus and Russia. Effective doses were above 1 mSv y−1 in the CEZ, but much lower in the rest of Europe contributing an additional dose to the Eastern European population, which is far below a dose from a medical X-ray.

 

Read article.

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Fire near Fukushima nuclear site could spread radiation further via Beyond Nuclear

TAKOMA PARK, MD, May 2, 2017 –A raging wildfire in the Fukushima radiation zone not far from the March 2011 Japan nuclear power plant disaster, demonstrates that a nuclear accident has long-term and on-going effects that can worsen over time, says Beyond Nuclear, a leading national anti-nuclear advocacy group.

The fire, which began on April 21 in the mountains outside Namie in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, is in an area where human entry is barred “on principle” because of high radiation levels resulting from the Fukushima nuclear triple meltdowns and explosions. The fire is being fought from the air with helicopters spraying water.

“Just as high radiation levels barred rescuers from retrieving many earthquake and tsunami victims five years ago, today firefighters are being hampered from battling the blaze in the still contaminated area,” said Paul Gunter, Director of Reactor Oversight at Beyond Nuclear. “This makes extinguishing these radioactive fires more difficult which can have far reaching effects,” he said.

[…]

“The Chernobyl forest fire experience shows that forest fires in radioactively contaminated areas re-suspend contamination in the area, making it more available to natural processes like absorption by plants, but also spreading contamination to areas of lower or no contamination,” said Cindy Folkers, Radiation and Health Specialist at Beyond Nuclear.

The fire could be the first of many. A startling discovery made by Dr. Timothy Mousseau, a professor of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina, when studying the ecosystems in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, revealed that fallen trees and leaf matter were not decaying at the proper rate, creating a build-up of “tinder” on the forest floor.

“In higher areas of contamination, forest matter fails to decay because creatures responsible for decay like bacteria and fungi, do not function properly in the radioactive environment,” Folkers explained. “This ‘zombie’ forest litter presents an increased forest fire hazard in the radioactive landscape—exactly the place where you don’t want fire kindling.”

There have already been a number of serious forest fires around Chernobyl in recent years, spreading radioactivity into wider areas. However, there have not been adequate studies to monitor exactly where the radiation goes.

“Forest fires are dangerous enough, but radioactive forest fires raise the stakes for human health and safety because of the added difficulty to reliably monitor where radioactivity is traveling in the smoke,” said Gunter.

The Fukushima fire is a reminder that a major nuclear accident is never really over or confined.

“The long-term implications of on-again-off-again fires in radioactive forests are stark including re-contamination of so-called “decontaminated” areas, and re-suspension of radioactive particles thought to be out of the reach of natural processes,” said Folkers.

“This all points to the impossibility of containing man-made radioactivity from catastrophes like Chernobyl and Fukushima, once it is released. Resettlement in such areas would be unstable at best, with the constant threat of increased exposures and resulting health impacts,” Folkers concluded.

 

Read more.

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【74カ月目の浪江町はいま】帰還困難区域で山林火災、高まる二次拡散の懸念。「これでも〝安全〟か」。避難指示解除急いだ国や町に町民から怒りの声 via 民の声新聞

避難指示の部分解除から1カ月が経った福島県浪江町で4月29日、恐れていた山林火災が起きた。しかも発生場所は、浪江町の中でも汚染が特にひどいとされる帰還困難区域。強風と高濃度汚染で消火活動は難航し、1日夜の時点で鎮火に至っていない。「生活環境は概ね整った」と避難指示は解除されたが、今後も放射性物質の二次拡散というリスクと背中合わせの浪江町。消防隊員や帰還住民の内部被曝は防ぎようが無いのが実情で、原発事故の「現実」が改めて浮き彫りになった格好だ。

【消防団も現場に近づけず】
JR常磐線・浪江駅近くのスポーツセンター。福島県や宮城県のヘリコプターが数分おきに駐車場に着陸する。消火栓とつながれたホースでタンクに水を入れていく。ヘリが飛んで行った方向には、依然として山の稜線から煙が上がっていた。ひと気の無い街にプロペラの音だけが響く。恐れていた山林火災は、4月29日に「浪江町防犯見守り隊」の隊員が浪江消防署に駆け込んでから丸2日が過ぎても鎮火には至らず、放射性物質の二次拡散の懸念は高まるばかり。
焼失面積は10ヘクタールを超えた。火勢は弱まりつつあるものの、一度「鎮圧」と判断した後に再び火勢が強まった反省から、消防は「鎮圧」、「鎮火」の判断には慎重だ。2日は午前5時過ぎから浪江町の馬場有(たもつ)町長や双葉地方広域市町村圏組合消防本部の大和田仁消防長がヘリで上空から視察するなど対応に追われている。
火災の発生した「十万山」(標高448.4メートル)は、帰還困難区域に指定されている井手地区にある。浪江町は3月31日に避難指示が部分解除されたが、帰還困難区域は依然として立ち入りが厳しく制限されている。町の消防団も召集されたが現場に近づけない。「登山道の入り口から現場まで徒歩で2時間はかかる」と双葉地方広域市町村圏組合消防本部。なかなか現場が特定できず、ヘリで上空から確認するのと同時に、林野庁・磐城森林管理署職員の案内を受けながら急斜面の道なき道を進んだ。その間も強風であおられた煙が濃霧のように視界をせばめる。しかもただの煙ではない。防護マスクに取り付けた吸収缶の効果は最大でも3時間しか発揮しない。汚染された煙の中での交換は被曝リスクが伴う。隊員の健康を考えれば、やみ雲に原生林を分け入る事も得策では無い。4月30日正午には福島県の内堀雅雄知事から陸上自衛隊第6師団(山形県)に災害派遣が要請された。散水量は、陸自だけで400トンを超える。
しかし、自衛隊をもってしても放射性物質の二次拡散を止める事は出来ない。それが今回の山林火災の特殊性であり危険性だ。
【「隊員の被曝やむを得ない」】
「放射性物質の二次拡散は憂慮すべき事だが想定内ですよ。『生活環境は概ね整った』と避難指示は解除されたが、ひとたび山火事が起きればこれです。果たしてこういうリスクを町民に提示した上で国は避難指示を解除したのか。私は国や行政には期待していません。この国はうまくいっているというアピールは得意ですからね。戦時中がまさにそうでした。その意味では『自己責任』なんですよね。自分の身は自分で守るしかないんです」
樋渡・牛渡行政区から避難中の40代男性は話す。山林火災に伴う放射性物質の二次拡散について町からの積極的なアナウンスは無く、1日午前10時すぎにようやく、町のメールマガジンで火災の発生と「危険ですので不用意に近づかないようお願いいたします」という注意文が配信された。火災の通報が土曜日の夕方だから、丸1日以上町民へは周知されなかった。「土日は行政が動くのは難しい」と総務課防災安全係。

(略)

消防隊員の被曝リスクについては、双葉地方広域市町村圏組合消防本部も「汚染物質を持ち出さない事は出来るが、消防隊員の被曝を防ぐ手立ては無い。帰還困難区域内に居る時間を短くする事くらいしか出来ないが、現場に到着するまでに時間がかかり交代も難しい。被曝はやむを得ないというのが実際のところだ」と認めている。これでも「原発事故はアンダーコントロール」だと言えるのだろうか。

(略)

【モニタリング難しい微粒子】
いまのところ、町内外に設置されたモニタリングポストの空間線量に大きな変動は無い。地元メディアもその点を盛んに伝える。だが、南相馬市の市民団体「ふくいち周辺環境放射線モニタリングプロジェクト」の小澤洋一さんは「放射性微粒子は線量計やモニタリングポストで捕らえることができない」と指摘する。山林火災を受けて、同プロジェクトや市民放射能監視センター「ちくりん舎」(東京都西多摩郡日の出町)は浪江町内に数枚の麻布を張った。内部被曝をもたらす微粒子の付着を調べる事で二次拡散状況を数値化できると考えている。
国も、燃焼による放射性物質の二次拡散については慎重な姿勢で臨んでいる。4月20日に開かれた飯舘村の住民懇談会の席上、内閣府の担当者は野焼きに関し「放射性物質がどのくらい飛散して作物などに付着・移行するのか実験・検証出来るまで野焼きは控えて欲しい」と村民に求めている。避難指示解除を急いだ国の官僚ですら、安全だと断言出来ていないのが現実だ。
小澤さんらの調査では、帰還困難区域内にある大柿ダム近傍の落ち葉で昨秋、1キログラムあたり1万7000ベクレルの放射性セシウムが検出されたという。「燃焼で放射性物質は数十倍に濃縮されます。専門家によっては数百倍との指摘もある」と小澤さん。しかし、国も福島県も浪江町も内部被曝に関する注意喚起は一切しない。

全文は【74カ月目の浪江町はいま】帰還困難区域で山林火災、高まる二次拡散の懸念。「これでも〝安全〟か」。避難指示解除急いだ国や町に町民から怒りの声 

◇浪江町の林野火災における放射線モニタリング状況等について(福島県のホームページより)

福島県浪江町の帰還困難地域において4月29日に発生した山火事につきまして、「放射能汚染の激しい地域では森林除染ができておらず、火災が起きれば花粉が飛ぶように放射性物質が飛散する」等といった情報がインターネット上に流れておりますが、火災現場周辺の環境モニタリングおいても火災の発生前後で空間線量率に変動はなく、林野庁による過去の山火事調査の結果においても、鎮火後に森林から生活圏へ放射性物質が流出する危険性は極めて低いとされており、現在、周辺環境に影響が及んでいる事実は一切ありません。

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Great Lakes community contemplates nuclear plant closure via Marketplace

Back in the 1970s and ’80s, Great Lakes beaches were the perfect spot for nuclear power plants. The fresh water helped cool nuclear reactors and small, lakeshore towns got jobs. Today nuclear power plants are finding it hard to compete with cheaper energy sources, forcing some to shut down. That’s divided one community on Lake Michigan that relies on Palisades Nuclear Power Plant.

[…]

Closing nuclear power plants can devastate a small town, and not just because people will be out of work. Van Buren County Administrator Doug Cultra said Palisades employees are often community leaders. They’re soccer coaches and school board members.

“We’re talking about some highly skilled, intelligent people, and it’s disappointing to think we’ll lose some of those people,” he said.

Covert Public Schools gets about half its funding from taxes on Palisades Nuclear Plant — $4 million a year. Most of Covert’s students are low-income, and many are minorities. However, for three years in a row, the district has outperformed similar schools. Those dollars make a difference, said Superintendent Bobbi Morehead.

“Our children … they definitely beat the odds every day,” she said.

[…]

The memory of Palisades will continue long after it closes. Its owner, Louisiana-based Entergy Corp., will have to tear down the buildings and clean up any contamination at the site. That could take up to 60 years.

The radioactive waste will stay on the Lake Michigan shoreline until the federal government finds a permanent storage site for spent nuclear fuel. Palisades officials said the waste will be safe in 20-foot-tall canisters called casks.

“The casks are steel and concrete, weigh thousands of pounds and can withstand natural disasters,” said Val Gent, senior communications specialist for Palisades.

Residents like Neiss aren’t as confident in the safety of the radioactive waste.

“I’m sure it’s as safe as they can possibly make it, but to know that it’s sitting there on the beach is not a comforting thing,” he said.

Read more and listen to the program at Great Lakes community contemplates nuclear plant closure 

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台北市議会が日本食品の販売規制条例 福島など5県産はNO 蔡英文政権の動きと逆行… via 産経ニュース

台北市議会は3日、東日本大震災後に台湾当局が輸入を禁じている福島県など5県産の食品について、市内での販売を禁じる条例改正案を可決した。

(略)

蔡英文政権は福島を除く4県産の食品については輸入を解禁する時期を模索しており、これに逆行する動きだ。改正条例は、5県産以外の日本食品についても、原産地の都道府県名を中国語で表示するよう義務づけた。(台北 田中靖人)

全文は台北市議会が日本食品の販売規制条例 福島など5県産はNO 蔡英文政権の動きと逆行… 

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