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The Department of Energy on Friday issued a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on low-level radioactive waste disposal, with public meetings set for April and May in cities near potential waste sites in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Nevada, New Mexico and South Carolina. The EIS addresses greater-than-class-C (GTCC) low-level-radioactive waste (LLRW) as DOE considers new and existing storage facilities. GTCC waste comes from power plants, medical treatments, medical diagnostics and oil and gas exploration, as well as other industrial processes. The EIS and waste sites do not involve high-level waste like spent fuel.

In a release, DOE estimates current GTCC and GTCC-like LLRW in storage at 1,100 cubic meters. The EIS estimates an additional 175 cubic meters of waste will be generated each year over the next six decades. In looking for places to store that waste, the EIS analyzes the potential environmental impacts of using both new and existing waste facilities. Disposal methods evaluated include deep geological repository, intermediate depth boreholes, enhanced near-surface trenches and above-grade vaults

“disposal locations analyzed include the Hanford Site in Washington; Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho; the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) and the WIPP vicinity in New Mexico; the Nevada National Security Site (formerly the Nevada Test Site) in Nevada; and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Draft EIS also evaluates generic commercial disposal sites in four regions of the U.S., as well as a no action alternative.”

In the post-disaster environment, there is now another disincentive to have children: concerns about radiation. Though long-term health implications of exposure to low doses of radiation is disputed, medical officials deem infants to be more prone to the dangers than adults. “Before the disaster, I wanted to have another child, but now I don’t think I can. I used to work at the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Plant,” says Yuki Sato, referring to the facility a few miles from the stricken Daiichi facility. Ms. Sato and her 6-year-old son are now living at an evacuation center in Koriyama City on the western edge of Fukushima Prefecture. She is concerned about radiation she may have been exposed to following the accident. “I asked the medical staff at the center whether a baby would be affected,” says Sato. “They said it ‘should' be OK.' What kind of answer is that when talking about having a baby?” Although few people were working as close to the Fukushima accident as Sato, women across the northeast of Japan, and as far away as Tokyo, are concerned about having children amid ongoing fears of the effects of radiation.

On 17 August 2011, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the United States issued a press release announcing that the South African government, through the Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), had returned 6,3kg of highly enriched uranium (HEU) spent fuel to the US for safe storage and ultimately for destruction.

NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within the US Department of Energy (DOE) responsible among other things for maintaining and enhancing the safety, security, reliability and performance of the US nuclear weapons stockpile. The shipment arrived at Savannah River Site (SRS) on 16 August. The SRS is a key DOE industrial complex dedicated to nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship and nuclear materials destruction in support of the US nuclear non-proliferation efforts. It is situated 20 miles south of Aiken, South Carolina.

Subsequent press reports and releases by mainly US-based academics and NGOs lauded this development as a significant step in 'reducing and securing vulnerable [emphasis added] radioactive materials held at civilian sites around the world' and stated that it represents an important effort to 'strengthen the world's defences against nuclear terrorism'. While at first reading these may seem reasonable assertions, a number of important caveats need to be highlighted.

Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant."How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives. "The government and TEPCO have not reported the total amount of the released radioactivity yet," said Kodama, who believes things are far worse than even the recent detection of extremely high radiation levels at the plant. There is widespread concern in Japan about a general lack of government monitoring for radiation, which has caused people to begin their own independent monitoring, which are also finding disturbingly high levels of radiation. Kodama's centre, using 27 facilities to measure radiation across the country, has been closely monitoring the situation at Fukushima - and their findings are alarming.According to Dr Kodama, the total amount of radiation released over a period of more than five months from the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster is the equivalent to more than 29 "Hiroshima-type atomic bombs" and the amount of uranium released "is equivalent to 20" Hiroshima bombs.

Kodama, along with other scientists, is concerned about the ongoing crisis resulting from the Fukushima situation, as well as what he believes to be inadequate government reaction, and believes the government needs to begin a large-scale response in order to begin decontaminating affected areas.Distrust of the Japanese government's response to the nuclear disaster is now common among people living in the effected prefectures, and people are concerned about their health.Recent readings taken at the plant are alarming.When on August 2nd readings of 10,000 millisieverts (10 sieverts) of radioactivity per hour were detected at the plant, Japan's science ministry said that level of dose is fatal to humans, and is enough radiation to kill a person within one to two weeks after the exposure. 10,000 millisieverts (mSv) is the equivalent of approximately 100,000 chest x-rays.

t is an amount 250 per cent higher than levels recorded at the plant in March after it was heavily damaged by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), that took the reading, used equipment to measure radiation from a distance, and was unable to ascertain the exact level because the device's maximum reading is only 10,000 mSv. TEPCO also detected 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) per hour in debris outside the plant, as well as finding 4,000 mSv per hour inside one of the reactor buildings.

Advocates for atomic workers sickened by on-the-job radiation exposure at places like the Miamisburg Mound Plant say they’re outraged by a training manual for a federal compensation program that refers to a hypothetical claimant as “Freddy Krueger,” the name of a horror movie character whose face was badly burned.The undated Labor Department manual, used in training people who screen applicants for possible compensation and medical benefits, also refers to the pathologist in a hypothetical dead worker’s case as the fictitious serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

The manual’s jocular attitude toward workers who have suffered from cancers and other serious illnesses is “indicative of the disrespect that’s shown to claimants” by Labor Department officials, said worker advocate Deb Jerison of Yellow Springs, who heads a nonprofit that helps sick atomic workers and their survivors obtain federal benefits. Some of the workers have died from their illnesses.Labor officials did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, administered by the Labor Department, provides medical benefits and compensation for sick atomic workers, if it is shown their illnesses were caused by occupational exposures. Workers suffering from cancers and some other illnesses known to be caused by radiation exposures can receive lump-sum payments, as can certain survivors.For decades, the Energy Department claimed that none of its workers was sickened by radioactive exposures. Since the program was established in 2001, it has paid $7.4 billion in compensation and doctor bills for more than 86,000 claimants.Jerison obtained the manual in a Freedom of Information Act request to Labor and found it riddled with pop-culture references.

Unusual form of plants are being found every where in Japan. Today,a Japanese traditional root vegetable “Myoga” was found ,which was four times bigger than usual size. The farmer said ,he has never seen such big Myoga. He has been farming there since his grand parents’ generation. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20110928-OYT1T00324.htm Should we stay here ? The answer is no. and the right question is When should we have evacuated ? Today’s news.

From a survey conducted by the local hospital association, it became clear that 12% of the full time medical doctors who worked at the hospitals in Fukushima Prefecture have retired voluntarily. That means 125 doctors less in Fukushima Prefecture’s hospitals. The number of nurses who retired also rose, 407 of them - which means 5% (form 42 hospitals) - it is believed to have retired because they had to evacuate. As a consequence, a part of the clinical departments and the night emergency medical service in the prefecture’s hospitals are inactive. The survey was made by the end of July to check the conditions in which the doctors work in the prefecture. It was conducted in 127 hospitals - from the total of 139 hospitals -,which are members of the same association. The survey was answered by only 54 hospitals.

Mr.Koide was stopped to publish a data on 3/18. It is the data to show how much radiation flew to Tokyo. The data was taken in Tokyo ,on 3/15. It reads, I-131 720Bq/m3 I-132 450 Bq/m3 I-133 20 Bq/m3 Te-132 570 Bq/m3 Cs-134 110 Bq/m3 Cs-136 21 Bq/m3 Cs-137 130 Bq/m3 Effective dose = 210uSv/d The safety limit of effective dose per day is 55 uSv. It was about four times as the safety limit.

In addition to two previous posts on this issue:”Fukushima went back to recriticality almost for 100%” and “Fukushima in recriticality” it turns out that they also detected I-131 in North and Western Japan. 1) in Miyagi. 42 Bq/kg – 8/9/2011 41 Bq/kg – 9/6/2011 2) In Nagasaki 563 Bq/kg – 8/4/2011 151 Bq/kg – 8/11/2011 44 Bq/kg – 8/22/2011

When it comes to the detection of I-131, some people always try to deny the possibility of recriticality to reassure themselves by bringing up the possibility of medical usage of Iodine. However, in a previous post, Breaking News: Fukushima went back to recriticality almost for 100%, the possibility of the medical usage of Iodine was completely denied by asking the local hospitals. From all the data,it is possible to think Fukushima still goes into the state of recriticality on and off http://onodekita.sblo.jp/article/48003171.html Kuri Sewage Odei 20110906

The Clinton nuclear power plant in Illinois could be set to make a vital isotope for nuclear medicine after GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Exelon announced a feasibility study into the production of molybdenum-99 at the plant.

Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) decays to produce technetium-99m (Tc-99m) that is used in around 50 million medical diagnostic imaging procedures every year. With a half-life of only six hours, Tc-99m is too short-lived to be transported to hospitals so is produced where it is needed in generators containing Mo-99. As Mo-99 itself has a half-life of only 66 hours, the world needs reliable, steady supplies of the isotope, most of which is made by irradiating uranium-235 targets inside a research reactor.

Most of the world's Mo-99 comes from only five research reactors: Canada's NRU, the Netherlands' HFR, Belgium's BR-2, France's Osiris and South Africa's Safari-1. Issues at some of the reactors in recent years have led to worldwide problems with the supply of this vital isotope. Earlier this year, a high-level committee of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency called on governments to address underlying economic structures to help to ensure reliable supplies.

Ukraine launched construction of a new facility Wednesday to stockpile industrial nuclear waste in the contaminated zone around its Chernobyl plant, site of the worst nuclear accident of the last 25 years. The facility will be launched in early 2013 and will only house Ukrainian nuclear waste, a large part of which is currently stored in "poorly equipped" locations, Chernobyl plant's spokeswoman Maya Rudenko said. "It will not be for material from nuclear plants" but waste from medical facilities and industries, she told AFP. The facility will have capacity for 400,000 capsules with such waste and have a lifespan of 50 years.

Construction of the storage facility is estimated to cost over 11 million euros ($14.6 million) to come from Britain, which will provide eight million British pounds ($12 million) and the European Commission (two million euros, or $2.6 million). The Chernobyl nuclear plant is located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Kiev and close to the borders with Russia and Belarus. Its fourth reactor exploded in April 1986 with fallout hitting the three Soviet republics along with a large part of Europe.

External radiation is not counted in this number, as opposed to their draft plan in July which did include external radiation, and it is in addition to the natural radiation exposure (by which is meant pre-Fukushima natural).The experts on the Commission didn't rule on the radiation limit for children, leaving the decision to the Ministry of Health and Labor as if the top-school career bureaucrats in the Ministry would know better.Yomiuri and other MSMs are spinning it as "tightening" the existing provisional safety limits on food.From Yomiuri Shinbun (10/27/2011):

The Food Safety Commission under the Cabinet Office has been deliberating on the health effect of internal radiation exposure from the radioactive materials in food. On October 27, it submitted its recommendation to set the upper limit on lifetime cumulative radiation from food at 100 millisieverts.

On receiving the recommendation, the Ministry of Health and Labor will start setting the detailed guidelines for each food items. They are expected to be stricter than the provisional safety limits set right after the Fukushima I Nuclear Plant accident. The Radiation Commission under the Ministry of Education will review the guidelines to be set by the Ministry of Health and Labor, and the new safety limits will be formally decided.

In Ichinoseki shi, Iwate, a 15 year old student died of subarachnoid hemorrhage at his junior high school.

A subarachnoid hemorrhage, or subarachnoid haemorrhage in British English, is bleeding into the subarachnoid space—the area between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater surrounding the brain. This may occur spontaneously, usually from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm, or may result from head injury. Symptoms of SAH include a severe headache with a rapid onset (“thunderclap headache”), vomiting, confusion or a lowered level of consciousness, and sometimes seizures. The diagnosis is generally confirmed with a CT scan of the head, or occasionally by lumbar puncture. Treatment is by prompt neurosurgery or radiologically guided interventions with medications and other treatments to help prevent recurrence of the bleeding and complications. Surgery for aneurysms was introduced in the 1930s, but since the 1990s many aneurysms are treated by a less invasive procedure called “coiling”, which is carried out by instrumentation through large blood vessels.

SAH is a form of stroke and comprises 1–7% of all strokes. It is a medical emergency and can lead to death or severe disability—even when recognized and treated at an early stage. Up to half of all cases of SAH are fatal and 10–15% of casualties die before reaching a hospital, and those who survive often have neurological or cognitive impairment. SOURCE Though the connection with radiation is not “clear”, radiation level was higher than 10 micro Sv/h at the play ground. The radiation level was not announced to the students and parents. He belonged to a sport club, spent a lot of time at the playground. He fainted inside of the school building. When he was sent to the hospital, he was unresponsive. He died there. At this school, even inside of the classroom, it is over 0.5 micro Sv/h. (Source)

This kind of posts will be “unconfirmed” forever. A Japanese citizen talked about his own symptoms on a Japanese forum. In his case, a bruise appeared on his stomach and it does not hurt even if he touches it. This is only one of the many cases posted on the internet. I expect someone who got through Chernobyl or has radioactive medical knowledge to see this picture. His symptoms are: canker sore Diarrhea ←me too Anemia Vertigo Bleeding from gum High blood pressure Nausea after eating something Itchy eyes ←me too Bad eye sight ←me too Ringing in the ears ←me too Muscle pain even though he did not work out ←me too Sore throat ←me too He suffered from these symptoms until this summer. They still come out on and off. Recently he suffers from constant pain around belly, bowel, and bladder. He analyzes it’s from internal exposure.

Thyroid cancer cases have more than doubled since 1997 in the United States, while deadly industrial practices that contaminate groundwater with radiation and other carcinogens are also rising. New information released by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that 56,460 people will develop thyroid cancer in 2012 and 1,780 will die from it.

From 1980 to 1996, thyroid cancer increased nearly 300%, while the population increased by (again) 18%. Most thyroid cancers don’t develop for 10-30 years after radiation exposure, but the monstrous spike in thyroid cancer from 1980-2012 is only partly the result of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 (TMI). Pennsylvania, with its nine nuclear reactors, does have the highest incidence of thyroid cancer across nearly all demographics among 45* states, reports epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, MPH MBA, of the Radiation and Public Health Project. In 2009, he analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control’s national survey of thyroid cancer incidence for the years 2001-2005 and compared it with proximity to nuclear power stations, finding:

M]ost U.S. counties with the highest thyroid cancer incidence are in a contiguous area of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and southern New York. Exposure to radioactive iodine emissions from 16 nuclear power reactors within a 90 mile radius in this area … are likely a cause of rising incidence rates.

Science with a Skew: The Nuclear Power Industry After Chernobyl and Fukushima

[...] The Japanese physicians and scientists who’d been on the scene told horrific stories of people who’d seemed unharmed, but then began bleeding from ears, nose, and throat, hair falling out by the handful, bluish spots appearing on the skin, muscles contracting, leaving limbs and hands deformed. When they tried to publish their observations, they were ordered to hand over their reports to US authorities. Throughout the occupation years (1945-52) Japanese medical journals were heavily censored on nuclear matters. In late 1945, US Army surgeons issued a statement that all people expected to die from the radiation effects of the bomb had already died and no further physiological effects due to radiation were expected. When Tokyo radio announced that even people who entered the cities after the bombings were dying of mysterious causes and decried the weapons as “illegal” and “inhumane,” American officials dismissed these allegations as Japanese propaganda.

The issue of radiation poisoning was particularly sensitive, since it carried a taint of banned weaponry, like poison gas. The A-bomb was not “an inhumane weapon,” declared General Leslie Groves, who had headed the Manhattan project. The first western scientists allowed in to the devastated cities were under military escort, ordered in by Groves. The first western journalists allowed in were similarly under military escort. Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett, who managed to get in to Hiroshima on his own, got a story out to a British paper, describing people who were dying “mysteriously and horribly” from “an unknown something which I can only describe as the atomic plague… dying at the rate of 100 a day,” General MacArthur ordered him out of Japan; his camera, with film shot in Hiroshima, mysteriously disappeared.

Interview w/Dr. Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano, co-authors of the medical journal article on 14,000 excess U.S. deaths following Fukushima.

Download the program here: http://lhalevy.audioacrobat.com/deluge/NuclearHotseat-31_1-12-12.mp3

Transcript Summary at 31:30 in Mangano: Follow up journal article looking at additional deaths 14,000 may be closer to 20,000 excess deaths Looking at age groups, different cities Sherman: At Chernobyl, entire biological sphere has been affected

The aftermath of the tsunami that ransacked the Japanese coast led to one of the worst nuclear meltdowns in the history of the world. Now, two researchers believe it may also have played some role in killing tens of thousands of Americans. “[It’s] 155,000 deaths,” Joseph Mangano said, ”so we’re not talking about an increase from three to five deaths. We’re talking about quite a few.”

Mangano works at the Radiation and Public Health Project. The report he co-authored for a medical journal suggesting a link between Fukushima fallout and an increase in deaths in the United States has stirred up some controversy. “The authors appeared to start at a conclusion,” Scientific American’s Michael Moyer wrote, “ – babies are dying because of Fukushima radiation – and work backwards, torturing their data to fit their claims.” But Mangano said his critics miss the point.

“We have not stated conclusively that Fukushima fallout killed 22,000 Americans,” he said. Instead, he and co-author Dr. Jannette Sherman cite numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly morbidity report. That data showed a large spike in deaths – particularly infant deaths – in the 14 weeks following the Fukushima meltdown.

As efforts to end the nuclear disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant drag on, it is important for the central and local governments to step up their efforts to closely examine the health conditions of people concerned and to decontaminate areas contaminated by radiation.

The people who have been most affected by radiation from the Fukushima plant are workers, both from Tepco and from subcontractors, who have been trying to bring the radiation-leaking plant under control. In the nation's history, these workers rank second only to the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in terms of their exposure to radiation, therefore the possibility cannot be ruled out that they will develop cancer. Tepco and the central government must do their best to prevent workers' overexposure to radiation and take necessary measures should workers become overexposed to radiation. It is of great concern that little has been disclosed regarding the conditions of the workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Tepco and the central government should disseminate information on the actual working conditions of these people, even if such information seems repetitious and includes what they regard as minor incidents. People are forgetful. They need to be informed. Such information will help raise people's awareness about the issue of radiation and its impact on health.

It must not be forgotten that exposure to radiation has long-term effects on human health. In the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, the number of leukemia cases started to increase among bombing survivors two years after the bombs were dropped. In the case of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, thyroid cancer began to appear among children several years after the disaster happened. Particular attention should be paid to the health of children. In view of these facts, it is logical that the Fukushima prefectural government has developed a program to monitor the health of all residents in the prefecture, who number about 2 million, throughout their lifetime. It has also started examining the thyroids of some 360,000 children who are age 18 or younger. Detailed and long-term area-by-area studies should be carried out to record cancer incidences. In August, the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan estimated that the Fukushima accidents released a total of 570,000 terabecquerels of radioactive substances, including some 11,000 terabecquerels of radioactive cesium 137.

Radiation from nuclear accidents is frequently expressed by the media as “just like an x-ray” or “equivalent to an x-ray”. This comparison is grossly incorrect. Many times internal exposure will be again, incorrectly compared to an x-ray. These faulty comparisons give the public a false sense of security. The International  Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War have an excellent paper that clearly explains the differences between medical diagnostics and a nuclear accident.

During WWW2, Japanese government gathered female students in okinawa and made a nurse team, called Star Lily Corps. When US army landed on Okiwana, they were forced to work give medical care for Japanese army and 224 of 297 girls and teachers died. Some of them fell off from the cliff to commit suicide. It was a female version of Kamikaze. Now Japanese government is going into the same insanity. They are holding a marathon relay race in Fukushima city. source At this moment when this article is being written, teenage runners are running.

The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is coming under scrutiny after some conflicting stories have come out about the plants condition. One report says all reactors in Ukraine are on alert conditions, another claims Zaporizhia shut down after a problem but that no radiation was leaking out. The two reports on Twitter: russian_market russian_market ☰ ВСЕГДА ГОТОВ ☰ BREAKING NEWS: Incident at the Nuclear Power Plant in #Zaporizhia /Ukraine/, the Fifth block turned off automatically bit.ly/vIn8mT

12 Nov @russian_market ☰ ВСЕГДА ГОТОВ ☰ BREAKING NEWS: ALL NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS in Ukraine put on Alert after today’s incident at the Nuclear Power Plant in #Zaporizhia /Ukraine/ Lenta.ru is reporting a fault in the power systems but no emergency. Russian Market via Joop;nl is stating all nuclear plants in Ukraine are on alert. EURDEP is showing gradually lowering radiation levels over Europe over all and gradually lowering Iodine 131. Zaphorizhia is a possibility and the shutdown coincides with the levels dropping off in eastern Europe. But the radiation stations near the Krsko nuclear plant in Slovenia are still elevated compared to other areas. There is still the possibility of an outlier such as one of the medical reactors in Poland or Russia or yet another unknown source.