ISOTOPES,
HALF LIVES AND HEALTH RISKSTigerSoft Blog
www.tigersoftware.com 3/27/2011 - from Japan - Nuclear plant downplayed
tsunami risk
This important article shows the tragic
management mistakes
that
led up to this nuclear spill catastrophe that now threatens
Japan's
very existence.
"(W)hile TEPCO and
government officials have said no one could have anticipated
such a massive tsunami, there is ample evidence that such waves have
struck the
northeast coast of Japan before - and that it could happen
again along the culprit fault line,
which runs roughly north to south, offshore, about 220 miles (350
kilometers) east of
the plant."
"TEPCO's
engineers decided not to factor in quakes earlier than 1896. That meant the experts
excluded a major quake that occurred more than 1,000 years ago - a tremor followed by a
powerful tsunami that hit many of the same locations as the recent disaster.
"A TEPCO reassessment presented only four months ago
concluded that tsunami-driven water would push no higher than 18 feet (5.7 meters) once it
hit the shore at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex. The reactors sit up a small bluff,
between 14 and 23 feet (4.3 and 6.3 meters) above TEPCO's projected high-water mark,
according to a presentation at a November seismic safety conference in Japan by TEPCO
civil engineer Makoto Takao.
"However, the wall of water that thundered ashore two weeks ago reached
about 27 feet (8.2 meters) above TEPCO's prediction. The flooding disabled backup power
generators, located in basements or on first floors, imperiling the nuclear reactors and
their nearby spent fuel pools."
3/24/2011
NUCLEAR RADIATION STAYS DANGEROUS
A VERY LONG TIME.
PLUTONIUM
BREACH
The news from Japan is not good.
Reactor #3's containment has been "breached".
This
is the reactor that has a hundred
tons of spent fuel rods which contain large amounts
of
Plutonium Disappointingly, Yahoo and CNN
are still not reporting this or what follows.
They
only state that three workers there waded through water that was 10,000 times more
radioactive
than normal. They do not mention that the Plutonium riched fuel rods at Reactor #3
make
this accident potentially much more deadly than at Chernobyl.
The
fuel rods in Reactor 3 are not uranium but ‘Mixed-Oxide’ (‘MOX’),
which combines uranium
with
Plutonium. The Nuclear Information Resource Center (NIRS) states ‘MOX’ fuel is
far more
dangerous
than typical enriched uranium. "(The MOX plutonium fuel used in Fukushima’s
Unit 3
reactor
(is) two million times more deadly than enriched uranium". This would explain
why
so
much more water has been dumped on this reactor than any of the others. With a
half-life
24,000
years, the Plutonium-239 in MOX will be deadly to life in the area forever. This why
the
Prime Minister used the words "very grave and serious."
http://www.naturalnews.com/031736_plutonium_enriched_uranium.html#ixzz1GxueMHQl
http://mountainrepublic.net/2011/03/25/japanese-authorities-admit-deadly-mox-plutonium-reactor-is-leaking/
We are still NOT being told that a
commercial nuclear reactor contains many thousand times
the
radioactivity as was released by the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why?
That
would help people understand what is happening in Japan and potentIally elsewhere. There
are
443 nuclear power plants in world. 62 are under construction. The US has 104.
( http://infoholix.net/blog/2011/03/19/japan-radiation-and-the-iodine-fairy-tale/
)
I
certainly pray that the nucear power plants radiation leakages will soon be contained.
But
even after that, many of the radioactive particles will still be emiting dangerous
radiation
wherever
they are for a long time, in the water, on the ground, in food or in people's bodies.
It is
sometimes
forgotten that this is a function of the different isotopes's half-lives. A
radioactive isotope
is
dangerous for 10 to 20 times its half life,
Officials in Japan and the US are not reporting the presence of
long-lasting, highly
dangerous
Plutonium or Strontium 90. Some consider this a "ploy" to avoid
panic and
nuclear
industry ac countability. All we hear is testing for radioactive Iodine and Cesium.
But the
presence of Iodine and Cesium virtually guarantee Plutonium and Strontium-90 are present.
The
American mass media ignores this because the US Government chooses not to talk
about it.
"The U.S. DOE focused on one long-lived radioisotope, cesium-137, as a ploy to downplay
the threat to the health of the islanders. Why? Because when cesium-137
incorporates into foods and enters the body, it is purged out of the body in less than a
year. H-O-W-E-V-E-R, when Strontium-90 is in the soils, the plants incorporate it
and it ends up in the teeth and bones of fetuses, babies, teens and adults for a lifetime
- it is linked to bone cancer and decreased immunity (read all about it here). Strontium-90 is the
worst radioactive chemical in fallout other than plutonium-239. ...They
won't and don't tell you that Cesium-137 is a marker for even worse
radioactive particles: Strontium-90 and plutonium-239.
(
http://www.idealist.ws/contamination.php
)
Most worrisome of all is
plutonium-239. Much of the spent fuel rod IS plutonium. It is
"extraordinarily
toxic." Plutonium exposure usually comes from inhalation rather than ingestion,
so
"it's mostly associated with lung cancer. What's more, plutonium's half life is
24,000 years, which
means
anything released in Fukushima today could be around at dangerous levels for up to half a
"
millon
years." ( Source.
)
ISOTOPES,
HALF LIVES AND HEALTH RISKS
Radiation
damages DNA, causing mutations, cancer, birth defects, heart disease, etc.
The
amount of harmful ionizing radiation emitted decines. It's half-life varies from
isotope
to
isotope. The longer the half-life, the longer the deadly danger.
Half Life
Isotope
------------
----------
80 million
years Plutonium-244 from Reactor 3. Accumulates in bone marrow.
Plutonium-240
This is weapons' grade, used in nuclear bombs. See details.
24,100
years Plutonium-239 A primary fissile isotopes in a nuclear
reaction.
88 years
Plutonium-238
All
of these forms of Plutonium are present in spent nuclear fuel, as in Japan disaster.
The alpha radiation plutonium emits does not penetrate the skin but can irradiate internal organs when plutonium is inhaled or ingested.[32] The skeleton, where plutonium is absorbed by the bone surface, and the liver, where it collects and becomes concentrated, are at risk.[31] Plutonium is not absorbed into the body efficiently when ingested; only 0.04% of plutonium oxide is absorbed after ingestion.[32] What plutonium is absorbed into the body is excreted very slowly, with a biological half-life of 200 years.[86] Plutonium passes only slowly through cell membranes and intestinal boundaries, so absorption by ingestion and incorporation into bone structure proceeds very slowly.[87][88]
Plutonium is more dangerous when inhaled than when ingested. The risk of lung cancer increases once the total dose
equivalent of inhaled radiation exceeds 400 mSv.[89]
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the lifetime cancer risk for inhaling 5,000
plutonium particles, each about 3 microns wide, to be 1% over the background U.S.
average.[90]
Ingestion or inhalation of large amounts may cause acute radiation poisoning and death; no human is known to have
died because of inhaling or ingesting plutonium, and many people have measurable amounts
of plutonium in their bodies.[76
...(W)hen inhaled, plutonium can pass into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream,
plutonium moves throughout the body and into the bones, liver, or other body organs.
Plutonium that reaches body organs generally stays in the body for decades and continues
to expose the surrounding tissue to radiation and thus may cause cancer.[91]
Several populations of people who have been exposed to plutonium dust (e.g. people living down-wind of Nevada test sites, Hiroshima survivors, nuclear facility workers, and "terminally ill" patients injected with Pu in 1945–46 to study Pu metabolism) have been carefully followed and analyzed.
30-years
Cesium-137
- Over first 4-day period, Japan's reactors rleased about half as much as
Chernobyl.
Organisms and bodies
treat it as though it is potassium and it becomes a fluid electrolyte
coursing
throughout the body.
8-days
Iodine-131 has now
been detected in Colorado. 20% of Chernobyl so far. The thyroid is
the organ
of the body that is most vulnerable to its radiation. Potassium iodine can protect the
thyroid.
20.1
years Strontium-90 The most feared fission product in a nuclear reactor.
The body treats it as
calcium.
It concentrates in bones and bone marrow. Humans get this
from drinking milk and eating
vegetables.
Causes anemia, interferes with blood's ability to clot. In the
body, the harmful
radiation
lasts a long time. This long term exposure increases chances of cancer and leukemia.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3/23/2011
NEW TIGER BLOGS ON NUCLEAR POWERS
UNTOLD DANGERS
DEADLY DOWNWIND
RADIATION DANGERS
UNPUBLICIZED DANGERS
FOR THOSE DOWNWIND OF NUCLEAR TESTING,
URANIUM MINING AND NUCLEAR-POWER PLANTS.
News
That "Tokyo's Tap Water Is
Unsafe" will quite properly scare
folks far downwind.
Any exposure to ionizing radiation from nuclear testing, weapons'
development,
uranium mining/milling
and nuclear power increases the risks of cancer and birth defects.
Watch to see if
the Regular Media talk of America's "Downwinders", those downwind of
nuclear tests, nuclear
weapons' plants, nuclear power plant "accidents" and uranium
mines and mills.
Cover-ups and secrecy are preventing the general public from seeing
alarming data about the
much elevated cancer risks from nuclear power plant radiation
escape and
contamination.
"Radiation in
Tokyo tap water raises concerns"
We have been told not to fear low
levels of ionizing radiation. This is dangerous
balderdash. Long term
exposure increases cancer risks (PERIOD). It is simply hard to make
draw exact epidemiological
conclusions from low level, long term exposure. In large
populations, there will
certainly be many more serious cancers. Hundreds. Thousands,
Tens of Thousands. It
all depends on how many people will be exposed. Tokyo
has 14 million people.
Four
personal stories make this point:
1) In 1976, in New Mexico I
interviewed NM's Energy Secretary John O'Leary about the
the risks of long term
exposures to low level radiation. Even though he had worked at the
Hanford, Washington nuclear
facility where cancer deaths were 25% higher than in the
larger population, he
denied the public was not put at any "significant" risk. He
became the
US Deputy Energy Secretary
under Schlesinger and Carter and frequently testified that
nuclear power was the safest
major source of alternative power. He died of cancer ten years
later.
Look at the extraordinarily high rates
of cancer among Navajos near the New Mexico
uranium mimes. http://www.nirs.org/radiation/radchart.htm
>
1500% increase in incidence of testicular and ovarian cancer in children.
>
500% increase in bone cancer in children
>
250% increase in leukemia (all ages)
>
200% increase in each of the following non-cancer effects: miscarriage, infant death,
congenital
defects, genetic abnormalities, learning disorders.Baseline for 1-4: Navajo
residents
living near Uranium facilities were compared to Navajo residents in
non-uranium
areas
>
500% increase in birth defects when compared to the national average.
This compares this with the under-reported
statistics for those down-wind of
Three Mile
Island.
Three Mile Island and Increases in Cancers.
http://www.nirs.org/radiation/radchart.htm
Baseline: Disease in population upwind (out of the radiation plume path) is
compared to disease in population downwind (in the pollution plume.)
(Wing S. Richardson D. et al. “A Reevaluation of Cancer Incidence Near the Three Mile
Island Nuclear Power Plant: The Collision of Evidence and Assumptions.” Environmental
Health Perspectives, v 105, no 1. National Institutes of Health. Bethesda, Maryland.
January 1997.)
2) In New Mexico in the 1970s, it was
well known that workers in the uranium mines
at Grants there northeast of
Albuquerque would suffer a much high incidence of lung cancer.
The government did not close
the mines. It covered up the dangers. Why did people take the
jobs. The pay was good.
$30,000/year in 1975 would be like $100,000 now. Such jobs were
scarce. So many
men took them. Finally, more than 40 years later, mortality rates were
studied for uranium miners.
The official conclusion was "Yes" uranium miners did get more
cancer than the general
population, but then they drank and smoked more, too. Those
who worked in the mills did
not suffer an increase. The same data were looked
at by others for NIOSH. It
found among non-smoking uranium miners, deaths from
lung
cancer were 12.7 times higher.
3) I tried in
1976 to get the government to open up the cancer statistics for down-wind
Albuquerque, but was told
this was not public information. The Federal government was
in full cover-up mode under
President Ford. But the tragedy was too great. The protesters
from conservative Utah would
not go away. See the stories and cancer statistics of
"downwinders" from the
nuclear testing in Nevada in the 1950s. The Federal government
tried for years to deny the
dangers at Hanford and in New Mexico. Compensation
legislation
passed Congress in 2010.
4) I had a
partner in the mid 1980s, Earl Litzenberg, who as a marine had witnessed nuclear
testing in the South Pacific.
He died of cancer in his 50s.
Chernobyl and Increases in Cancers.
http://www.nirs.org/radiation/radchart.htm
See also the
struggle of those down-wind from the nuclear tests of the 1950s
and 1960s.
Nuclear
Testing and the Downwinders - Utah
Downwinders -
Wikipedia
Forgotten Victims: The
Story of Utah's Downwinders :: Documentary ...
Utah 'downwinders'
remember |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obama
- Nuclear Power Industry Puppet.
The
Most Dangerous Nuclear Power Plants in America Are in California,
on
the Ocean, just above Active Earthquake Faults and Near 11 Million People.
Obama
offers no assurances of safety, only new taxpayer bailout for nuclear power.
3/20/2011
Obama has proposed tripling nuclear loan guarantees to $54 billion from
the $18.5 billion
the Department of Energy allocated in 2005. He wants Americans to bail out the
nuclear power like it
was forced by both parties to bail out Wall Street. Why? Campaign
Contributions from nuclear power helped
Obama in 2008. He needs them in 2012, now that so many rank and file Democrats are
thoroughly disillusioned
with him and most Democrats, for their cowardice in standing up for national health care
and increased
taxation of the very rich. A nuclear power plant has not been built in US for
almost 40 years.
Obama's Closest advisors, Rahm Emanuel and
David Axelrod have close ties to Chicago based Execon, the largest nuclear power
operator. Exelon operates 17 US reactors, 20% of US nuclear power. Obama's new
budget proposed $36 Billion in nuclear industry loan guarantees. Already there are
20 more applications for new power plants before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Much of Rahm Emanuel's wealth comes from his being an investment banker who
arranged the mergers that created Exelon. Source.
Exelon and its
employees were the seventh-largest source of campaign
money for Obama while
a US Senator, contributing motr than $71,800, according to the Washington-based Center for
Responsive Politics.
"When he ran for president, the company’s employees gave at least $200,000, and board
member John Rogers Jr., chairman of Chicago-based Ariel Investments LLC, was a top Obama fundraiser. " Source.
"Obama’s
legislative involvement with nuclear energy started after Exelon announced in December 2005 that it
had detected “higher than normal concentrations” of tritium in an underground
pipe inside the boundary of a plant it operated in Braidwood, about 60 miles (97
kilometers) southwest of Chicago. Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen and a byproduct
of nuclear power generation that in large doses can increase cancer risk, was found days
later in a home’s drinking water well near the plant, although levels didn’t
exceed safety standards. ..Two months later, Exelon announced tritium leaks had been found
at two more nuclear power plant sites in Illinois. One of those, a plant located in Grundy
County, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, has the Mark 1 design, developed by General Electric Co. (GE) in the 1960s and used at
the Fukushima Dai- Ichi plant in Japan. Source.
 JAPAN 9
Earthquake |
 The Obama
administration has
approved a $8 billion loan guarantee to support the construction of two nuclear
reactors in Georgia. If the project goes forward, the plants would be the first built in
the United States since the 1970s. |
| America's Most Dangerously Located Nuclear Power Plants: Diablo Canyon (near San Luis Obispo) San Onofre (25 miles north of San Diego)  Tsunami - December 26/2004 - Thailand Japanese Tsunami The tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan in the March 11 earthquake was at least 10 meters (33 feet) high.. And this was not the biggest for Japan - Japan's biggest-ever tsunami was recorded at 38.2-meters (>100 feet) high in the high 1896 earthquake.. On April 1, 1946, a magnitude-7.8 (Richter Scale) earthquake occurred near the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. It generated a tsunami which inundated Hilo on the island of Hawaii with a 14 meters (46 ft) high surge. The highest tsunamis is California since 1930 were" 1930 Santa Monica 6.1 meters 20' 1930 Venice 6.1 meters 20' 1934 Newport Beach 12 meters 39' 1964 Sea View 3.8 meters 12'
San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant
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