http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43558540/ns/weather/N.M. facility calls in teams to track readings that measure levels of plutonium and uranium in the air ‘as a precaution’
<... T>he facility called in special teams to track readings from a network of 60 monitoring stations that measure levels of substances such as plutonium and uranium in the air “as a precaution,” said lab director Charles McMillan. <...>
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, who was visiting evacuees at the Santa Claran Hotel Casino in Espanola, said “there’s no doubt” the lab stores a variety of hazardous and radioactive materials that “you don’t want to escape in the atmosphere.” But he said he was confident lab and state environmental officials had monitoring systems in place to “evaluate exactly what we’re seeing here.” <...>
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/28/national/main20074950.shtmlAP: Los Alamos officials now confirming that drums of plutonium-contaminated waste are stored above ground at ‘Area G’<...> The anti-nuclear watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety said the fire appeared to be about 3.5 miles from a dumpsite where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste were stored in fabric tents above ground. <...>
Lab officials at first declined to confirm that such drums were on the property, but in a statement early Tuesday, lab spokeswoman Lisa Rosendorf said such drums are stored in a section of the complex known as Area G. She said the drums contain cleanup from Cold War-era waste that the lab sends away in weekly shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
She said the drums were on a paved area with few trees nearby and would be safe even if a fire reached the storage area. Officials have said it is miles from the flames. <...>
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related (first they deny, then they decline to comment, then they slip out partial truth, then they try to mitigate, then they attack anyone complaining or showing this)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hKW_xl9fJzQ9w5G4a5sXEY1LmFmw?docId=373fdd3e6ed549cd86f3e4299cd3874aReport: Up to 30,000 drums of plutonium-contaminated waste stored in fabric tents above ground at Los Alamos dumpsite — Lab declines to comment<...> The anti-nuclear watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety said the fire appeared to be about 3 1/2 miles from a dumpsite where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste were stored in fabric tents above ground. The group said the drums were awaiting transport to a low-level radiation dump site in southern New Mexico.
Lab spokesman Steve Sandoval declined to comment on that assertion, but did acknowledge there is low level waste stored in drums on lab property that is regularly taken to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project site in Carlsbad. <...>
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http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/145251Los Alamos lab contains world’s largest supply of nuclear weaponsLos Alamos National Laboratory is indelibly etched in historical memory as the hatching site of the Manhattan Project, the effort which created the first atomic bomb. The world’s largest nuclear weapons arsenal is still located there. <...>
Given the recent Japanese disaster at Fukushima, the fear of course is that a natural disaster can morph into a nuclear one. Firefighters are therefore concentrating on keeping the blaze out of the laboratory. “If it spots on the lab, we’ll get really aggressive about putting it out,” Los Alamos Fire Chief Doug Tucker said. <...>
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http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/28/UPI-NewsTrack-TopNews/UPI-43111309262340/UPI: Web site of group that revealed plutonium-contaminated waste is stored above ground at Los Alamos “appeared hacked early Tuesday morning”Los Alamos evacuated as wildfire nears, UPI, June 28, 2011:
<...> The lab would not comment on a Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety allegation that the wildfire was about 3 miles from a nuclear dumpsite containing tens of thousands of 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste.
The anti-nuclear watchdog group’s Web site appeared hacked early Tuesday morning, a United Press International check indicated. Its Facebook page had six messages from people alerting the group of the possible hacking, including a message commenting on the timing of the incident happening “just as the fires started.” <...>
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/us/28nuke.html?_r=1Ft. Calhoun nuclear workers carrying in fuel cans by hand in order to keep pumps running<...> At Fort Calhoun, where the river has risen gradually, the water seeps in through sandbag walls, electrical conduits and other places that workers had not thought much about before. There are so many small water pumps running to keep up with the leaks that keeping them supplied with gasoline and diesel requires something akin to a bucket brigade.
Orange plastic fuel cans are rolled on a cart over the catwalks and then handed off to employees who are headed deeper into the plant. Climbing over the sandbags at the entrances, they carry them in, and workers on their way out pick up a few empties and carry them out for refilling. <...>
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http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/national_world&id=8216539Feds in ’09: Los Alamos County firefighters not sufficiently trained to handle unique fires with radioactive materials at nuclear lab<...> In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy’s inspector general issued a report that said Los Alamos County firefighters weren’t sufficiently trained to handle the unique fires they could face with hazardous or radioactive materials at LANL.
Lab and fire department officials at the time said the report focused too much on past problems and not enough on what had been done to resolve them. Some problems also were noted in previous reports.<...>
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http://www.krqe.com/dpp/weather/wildfires/viewers-on-the-frontlines-of-the-fireLocal news shows ‘amazing’ and ‘terrifying’ images of wildfire that threatens Los Alamos nuke lab (VIDEO)----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110627/NEWS01/706279901/-1#flood-test-not-over-for-nuke-plantowerRiver water now surrounds spent fuel pool building and main reactor building at Ft. Calhoun after collapse of water-filled dam — Barriers at entrances to keep water out<...> Because of the collapsed water-filled dam, river water surrounds the main reactor building, mechanical building, spent fuel pool building and other structures.
Barriers at entrances to the buildings are keeping that water from entering,
said. A “minor” amount of water did seep into the plant’s turbine building, he said, and was pumped out. <...>
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http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/lochbaum270611.html
100% chance of reactor core damage if floodwaters went above 1010 ft. at Ft. Calhoun nuke plant, NRC said in 2010 — River now around 1,007 ft. and expected to rise
<...> During their routine inspections of weather protection readiness in 2010 <...> NRC estimated there was a 100% chance of reactor core damage caused by a flood rising above 1010 feet. The table at the top of Figure 1 provides the NRC’s assessment of the flooding risk while the table at the bottom provides the results from the risk assessment by Fort Calhoun Station (FCS). The company contested the NRC’s estimate. Its calculations showed that the chance of core meltdown was merely 19% for floods above 1010 feet and up to and including 1010.8 feet and only 23.9% for floods above 1010.8 feet to 1014 feet. <...>
UCS cannot say that these NRC actions already prevented an accident at Fort Calhoun or that they will prevent one should the flood waters continue to rise. However, the NRC did its job last year. The NRC’s inspectors found that Fort Calhoun was supposed to be protected against floods rising to 1014 feet, but was not. The NRC’s risk analysts determined that this deficiency was not academic — floods above 1010 feet had a 100 percent chance of core meltdown. And the NRC’s managers used the agency’s enforcement process to compel the plant’s owner to remedy the shortcomings rather than merely debate their risk. <...>
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http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/28_08.html
Radioactive strontium detected in seabed - VIDEO
Radioactive strontium has been detected for the first time on the seabed near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Tokyo Electric Power Company says it found strontium-89 and -90 in the seabed soil. The company conducted a survey on June 2nd about 3 kilometers off the coast at 2 locations, some 20 kilometers north and south of the nuclear complex.
The substances pose a serious health risk because they can accumulate in the bones if inhaled, which could cause cancer.
Up to 44 becquerels per kilogram of strontium-90 were detected, which has a half-life of 29 years.
The substances had been detected before in soil on land and in seawater following the nuclear accident in March.
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http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201106270160.html
TEPCO delayed disclosing rising radiation levels at plant
Tokyo Electric Power Co. saw signs that a hydrogen explosion was possible at the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant the night before the explosion occurred on March 12, but did not immediately inform the central government, according to a report published by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).
TEPCO also withheld similar information when the same buildup of hydrogen occurred in the No. 3 reactor, despite being obligated under government safety regulations.
The report says TEPCO detected 290 millisieverts of radiation per hour--a level that prohibits entry into the reactor building--at the No. 1 reactor building at 9:51 p.m. on March 11.
Such a high radiation level indicates the strong possibility of radiation and hydrogen leaks inside.
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http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/prestigious-doctor-japan-us-nuclear-valley-of-death#ixzz1QVQ34bM2
Dr Mark Sircus - "Terrible Valley of Death for Infants" First Signs of Radiation Sickness Already Here in United States (video)
Sunday, the prestigious Doctor Mark Sircus released a new report concurring with a host of scientists and other doctors giving evidence that people of Japan and United States have been subjected to dangerous levels of radiation since Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns, and also subjected to a tight cover-up by authorities and media, the result of which will be millions of baby deaths and new cancer victims.Japanese and American children are already suffering with symptoms that appear to be the first signs of Radiation Sickness.
"Finally, three months later, we are getting some numbers on what the real dangers are. And finally we can begin to understand the enormous cover-up of the nuclear doom that is reaching lungs all over the west coast of America, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and at least half of Japan!" stated Dr. Mark Sircus.
Dr. Sircus Ac., OMD, is director of International Medical Veritas Association (IMVA) http://www.imva.info/. He was trained in acupuncture and oriental medicine at Institute of Traditional Medicine in Sante Fe, N.M., and at the School of Traditional Medicine of New England in Boston. He served at the Central Public Hospital of Pochutla in Mexico, and was awarded the title of doctor of oriental medicine for his work including one of the first nationally certified acupuncturists in the U.S. Dr. Sircus's IMVA is dedicated to unifying various disciplines in medicine with the goal of creating a new dawn in healthcare.
"For infants, it’s a terrible valley of death we have created for them." says Dr. Sircus. "As we shall see for years, all of them have been born with already polluted bloodstreams and now, the very young ones are dying in greater numbers on the west coast of the United States since Fukushima blew up."
"After the first week, officials had enough information to call for evacuation of a wide area in Japan and also Hawaii, Alaska and the entire west coast of North America," said Dr. Sircus.
All of northern Japan and the U.S. west coast should have been evacuated according to Dr. Sircus, admittedly "as impossible as evacuating the entire planet or the entire northern hemisphere."
"Avoiding exposure is always the best plan but there is no way to avoid breathing in air contaminated with tiny hot particles. Inhalation issues are much more frightening than ingestion issues because you can pick and choose what you eat and drink but you can't buy bottled air."
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