“Levels are highest ever detected” around site. Approximately 96,000x background.
THIS IS A RADIOACTIVE HAZMAT situation until otherwise proven, and should be taken seriously.
"'Plutonium and americium are cancer-causing when inhaled or consumed'", Russell Hardy, director of the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center. said. "It’s important to know that some material did get out of the facility,”
NEW MEXICO OFFICIALS ARE VERY UPSET THAT WIPP DID NOT ADMIT RELEASE OF THE PLUTONIUM, ETC, FOR 5 DAYS!
“There is a lot more that needs to be known,” said Don Hancock, director
of the Nuclear Waste Safety Program at the Southwest Research and
Information Center in Albuquerque. “The big problem is, does anybody
really know what happened in the underground and how much was released
or is continuing to be released? And therefore how much is being
captured by the filters and how much is getting into the environment?”
[FROM A REPORT RELEASED FEB 20: The area of Maximum Alert for New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma are circled in red. Each numbered segment represents a total of 5 hours wind travel at current wind speed of 17 mph. So in section 6, the wind from WIPP would have reached Oklahoma City in approximately 30 hours, assuming particles carried that far, and winds have remained fairly constant. Precipitation bands are also appearing on water vapor analysis.]
A VERY LARGE IMAGE OF THE ABOVE MAP HERE: https://climateviewer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Hysplint.jpg
CEMRC (Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research Center) is providing free lung and whole body counting service to
concerned adult citizens living within a 100-mile radius of the WIPP
facility. This service is available by scheduling an appointment with the CEMRC Internal Dosimetry Lab at 575-234-5530.
IS CEMRC GOING TO OFFER THIS TO LOCALS FOR THE NEXT 10-20 YEARS? THAT'S HOW LONG IT TAKES FOR SOME CANCERS TO MANIFEST AFTER RADIATION EXPOSURE!
IF THERE'S "NO DANGER TO THE PUBLIC", WHY OFFER THIS?
[LARGER IMAGE OF DRAWING AT THE TOP OF THE POST IS HERE:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/WIPPFacility.jpg]
t was Valentine’s Day when the nation’s only radioactive nuclear waste facility first released radioactive particles including Plutonium and Americium into the atmosphere of New Mexico
and beyond, including into Texas, Oklahoma, and Mexico.Testing of surface air in and around the Energy Department complex has shown elevated levels of radiation since the mishap OVER 2 MONTHS AGO.
THEY SAY THEY STILL DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE SOURCE OF THE LEAK IS, OR WHERE!
IN THE REPORT SENT TO MEDIA THIS WEEK: "'investigators are still trying to find the source of the leak, which was first reported on Feb. 14. They believe it came from the breach of at least one underground waste container'', according to the report.
SO, HOW THE HELL CAN THEY FIX IT IF THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS?
AND IF THEY CAN'T LOCATE THE LEAK, IS IT STILL LEAKING, AS SOME HAVE SAID?
AND WHY DO THEY KEEP SAYING "AT LEAST ONE CONTAINER"...THEY FINALLY SENT A CREW DOWN INTO THE CAVERN IN MARCH!
WERE THEY ALL BLIND? OBVIOUSLY SO, ACCORDING TO THIS REPORT!
04/18/2014 The Associated Press & KOB TV
"Crews on their fourth (4th) trip into the mine on Wednesday made it into the area where active waste storage was last being conducted and found contamination. The farther they went into the rooms, the contamination became more widespread. But she says the crews had to retreat before identifying the possible source because they had been underground for five hours in protective gear and needed to make their way back above ground."
IS THAT AREA THAT "HOT" WITH RADIATION?
"Officials at WIPP continue to monitor the situation," spokeswoman Deb Gill said. "We are emphasizing there is no threat to human health and the environment."
GILL MADE SUCH A DENIAL BEFORE ANYONE HAD TESTED ANY SOIL OR AIR OR WATER OUTSIDE THE WIPP SITE.
DOES SHE HAVE SUPER POWERS SO THAT SHE CAN SEE NO PLUTONIUM, AMERICUM, URANIUM IN ANY PLACE DOWNWIND OR OUTSIDE THE FACILITY?
AFTER OVER 2 MONTHS, THE WIPP PEOPLE ARE STILL HAVING TROUBLE BEING HONEST WITH THE LOCAL POPULACE!
ONE OF WIPP's OWN IS CONTRADICTING GILL
Contradicting Gill's assurances that the radiation leaks from WIPP did not pose a threat to humans or the environment, plutonium readings were detected at a U.S. Department of Energy field office half a mile from the site. Joe Franco, the manager of the DOE field office, confirmed the readings. "Even though it's well below levels established by the EPA to ensure protection of public health, it's a very serious thing," he said.
WHAT HE DID NOT SAY WAS THAT THE READINGS MEAN SOMEBODY LIED TO THE LOCAL PEOPLE....RADIATION DID REACH THE SURFACE!
AND SOMETHING ELSE HE IS NOT SAYING IS THAT WIPP ENJOYS A WHOLE NEW, DESIGNED ONLY FOR ITS FACILITY SET OF "ACCEPTABLE LEVELS".
CONGRESS MADE SURE OF THAT!
FOR 20 DAYS, AT LEAST, RADIATION DID LEAK INTO THE ENVIRONMENT, AND INDEPENDENT MONITORS ARE SAYING THEY THINK THERE IS STILL A LEAK.
5 TYPES OF PLUTONIUM WERE DETECTED IN SAMPLES!
On Feb 19th, WIPP revised statements to report that Plutonium and Americium were indeed detected
If breathed or swallowed, plutonium generally stays in the body for decades and continues to expose the surrounding tissues to radiation. This may eventually increase the chance of developing cancer, but with low doses it would likely be several years before such cancer effects became apparent.
Nuclear industry lies are rational in terms of protecting THEIR interests.
Government admits radioactive release, says: don’t worry, be happy.
Radiation reached Carlsbad by February 24, but officials did not say this publicly until March 10. A week later they denied the report, saying the Carlsbad radiation came from somewhere other than the waste plant. They didn’t say where.
Even though the basic assertions here may be factually true in a narrow sense, the implied argument – that there’s nothing to be concerned about – is a lie.
First note the use of “potential” – twice – which makes clear that the “dose of less than one millirem,” which could potentially be much more, has little meaning for understanding reality. The statement is careful NOT to use “maximum” or any other limiting word. The first sentence implies a full body dose, the next sentence executes a bait and switch, referring to a chest X-ray which delivers a targeted dose. The last sentence pretends to put it all in perspective by trivializing the earlier doses in the context of an average annual dose of 620 millirem.
ON MARCH 15, the DOE said it will expand its environmental monitoring to 10 more stations that will test air, soil and vegetation around Hobbs [50 miles from WIPP], Artesia [50 miles from WIPP], Loving [20 miles from WIPP], Eunice [40 miles from WIPP] and other nearby communities.
Lawmakers are now raising questions about required safety inspections that were not performed at the plant prior to the leak.
Ryan Flynn, New Mexico Environment Secretary stated during a news conference, "Events like this simply should never occur. From the state's perspective, one event is far too many."
Officials said it is too early to know what this means for the 21 workers’ health WHO HAVE ALL SHOWN SIGNS OF RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION.
[TOO EARLY TO SAY HOW THIS WILL AFFECT THE HEALTH OF ALL THOSE MILLIONS DOWNWIND, EXPOSED TO THE SAME RADIATION FOR AT LEAST 20 DAYS IN FEBRUARY-MARCH!]
04/23/2014 05:37:57 PM MDT
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_25624283/critical-report-expected-wipp-radiation-releaseWIPP ( Waste Isolation Pilot Project) is the nation's first transuranic nuclear waste repository, used to permanently dispose of low-level nuclear waste from government sites around the nation.
BUT NO ONE LIVING NEARBY WAS TOLD THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "LIGHT DUTY NUCLEAR WASTE FACILITY!
http://www.abqjournal.com/363325<<Nobody should mistake WIPP as a light-duty facility. Nuclear waste is classified by the process that made it, and not how radioactive it is. Transuranic waste, the exclusive purview of WIPP, or those things that largely don’t exist in nature that only come from nuclear reactions, is classified as a subset of Low Level waste, but it contains things that are far more radioactive than anything classified as High Level Waste.
[NOTE: The waste must have radioactivity exceeding 100 nCi per gram from TRUs that produce alpha radiation with a half life greater than 20 years. This criterion includes plutonium, uranium, americium,and neptunium among others. ]
Most of the current drum materials like plutonium can’t hurt you by just standing there, however, inhaling particles of them is a total disaster. X-rays of test lab chimpanzees’ lungs show an alpha-emitter particle like a little star amongst the lung tissue discharging those big slow alpha particles (neutrons) into the unshielded DNA of the adjoining cells.>>
"'Americium 241 and plutonium 239 were mentioned. “But there are four other radio-isotopes of plutonium, namely the 238, 240, the beta and 241,” Dr. Bob Neill, a radiological medicine specialist said. “They’re all bone-seekers. So you want to be able to report all the values—how each one may have contributed. It’s just essential.'”
Certain radioactive elements (such as plutonium-239) in “spent” fuel will remain hazardous to humans and other creatures for hundreds or thousands to billions of years.
PLUTONIUM 244 has a half-life of 15-24 MILLION years.
Uranium-234, half-life of 150-250 thousand years.
Uranium 238 & 235, half-life of 4.468 BILLION years. BEGINNING TO SEE WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST?
The final facility contains a total of 56 storage rooms located approximately 650 meters underground. Each room is 100 yards in length.
THAT'S A LOT OF NUCLEAR WASTE SITTING AROUND IN POSSIBLY LEAKING BARRELS!
CONGRESS ITSELF CHANGED THE "LEVELS" TO ACCOMMODATE WIPP!<<In 1979 Congress authorized construction of the facility. In addition to formal authorization, Congress redefined the level of waste to be stored in the WIPP from high temperature to transuranic, or low level, waste often used in the production of nuclear fuel and NUCLEAR weapons.
The "shorter-lived" waste still remains radioactive for approximately 24,000 years.
In November 1991, a federal judge ruled that Congress must approve WIPP before any waste, even for testing purposes, was sent to the facility. The 102nd United States Congress passed legislation allowing use of the WIPP. The House of Representatives approved the facility on October 6, 1992 and the Senate passed a bill allowing the opening of the facility on October 8 of the same year. The bill was met with much opposition in the Senate. Senator Richard H. Bryan fought the bill based on safety issues that concerned a similar facility located in Nevada, the state for which he was serving as senator. The final legislation mandated that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issue revised safety standards for the facility. It also required the EPA to approve testing plans for the facility within ten months. The legislation stated that the security standards mandated in the bill were only applicable to the WIPP in New Mexico and not to other facilities in the United States. >>
The DOE authorization bill of 1979 was amended, thus authorizing WIPP to handle the most dangerous nuclear wastes, but "reclassify' them. High Level Waste such as fuel rods and waste from reprocessing was excluded for permanent storage, but WAS allowed AT WIPP for what was referred to as "experiments." NRC licensing was specifically forbidden as was state veto power, although the state could have "consultation and cooperation" power with the committee.
The WIPP project was opposed by the Carter administration and was stalled throughout 1980. At the end of that year, the DOE released its Final Environmental Impact Statement on WIPP. It called for WIPP to be compared with other High Level Waste disposal sites.
However, once the Reagan administration was in power, it was announced that the project was back on and that underground mining and construction would begin.
The State of New Mexico sued to stop WIPP from being constructed as planned. The matter was settled out of court with an agreement between New Mexico and the DOE. The State of New Mexico would allow the permanent construction and underground excavation, but the DOE had to agree to allow for independent state monitoring and testing.
When tests were conducted, it was discovered that the site chosen for the repository had deposits of brine, water that is highly saturated with salt. The location of the facility had to be moved. Ironically, the new site was on top of more brine, but the location was not moved again. When construction began at the site several hundred people demonstrated against the WIPP. Police arrested twenty protesters.
The DOE announced that WIPP would be opened for what it was calling a Test Phase in which 15% of the wastes would be stored there for tests. Since these wastes were not being put there for permanent storage, but rather part of tests, they would not be regulated under the stricter EPA standards for permanent waste.
WIPP needed EPA certification. The DOE would no longer be able to certify the facility itself. It would be up to the EPA to decide if WIPP could safely contain the waste.
The following year the DOE admitted that experiments with WIPP waste in the repository was not scientifically justified.
Even though tests were in progress to determine if the site could actually contain the waste being put there for 10,000 years, they would not be completed until after the DOE has started storing waste underground. In 1995, the EPA held hearings for revising the compliance criteria for permanent disposal and came out with a draft version in the later part of the year. The EPA then entered into discussions with the DOE, Westinghouse (the contractor in charge of WIPP) and the Office of Management and Budget. After these discussions, the EPA presented a watered down version of the criteria in the beginning of 1996.
A Defense Authorization Bill was passed in 1996 and carried with it an amendment that changed the Land Withdrawal Act.
- All references to the Test Phase had been removed.
- WIPP was not required to have to comply with the Solid Waste Disposal Act regulations on mixed waste.
- The WIPP facility was exempt from having to treat its waste to meet RCRA land disposal restrictions.
- All reference to retrievability were deleted from the Land
Withdrawal Acts as well as necessitating their being plans for
decommissioning the facility, for disposing of all the TRU-waste and for
surveying the TRU-waste all DOE facilities.
WIPP WAS "ABOVE THE LAW" THAT REGULATES ALL OTHER NUCLEAR FACILITIES!
<<I testified my support for a more simple, less expensive monitored-retrievable shallow civil-engineered non-collapsing concrete tunnel system. I still don’t believe a “bury it under millions of pounds of pressure and forget it forever” method from the 1950s will work.
I remember [others] testifying to the endless public panels before WIPP opened. One read into the record a long scenario with specific chemicals leeching together, fire and the resulting black smoke belching from the horizon. That person described in great detail the underground circumstances leading up to the release that nobody thought would ever happen.
That person, whoever it was, was kind of old back then, and I wonder if he’s alive to see it. I’m now thinking he may get to say, “I told you so". >>
”Located outside of Carlsbad in southeast New Mexico, WIPP is a 2,150-foot deep salt mine that is a permanent disposal site for radioactive waste from U.S. nuclear weapons production. With a budget of $202 million this year, it employs more than 1,000 people.
ON FEBRUARY 14, when this accident occurred, there were NO workers underground, leaving only two possible scenarios among the leak risks studied in the 1990s for WIPP’s exhaustive Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement: an exploding waste drum or a waste disposal room roof collapse.
The “roof fall” scenario was viewed as the least likely.
Freshly dug into the underground salt beds in which WIPP was built, the
rooms’ roofs were supposed to remain stable and at low risk of falling
in for a long period of time, according to the safety analysis. The
statistical probability of such a roof fall incident was calculated at
one chance in a million during a given year of WIPP operations.
Such an accident, according to the safety analysis, could leave a large number of waste drums crushed and leaking.
"I can't tell you the amount or level [OF THE LEAKS] but they were elevated and above normal, above background (levels),"Roger Nelson, a Department of Energy [DOE] spokesman, said of the radiation that was detected airborne near Panel 7, Room 7, in the south salt mine.
HOWEVER, a separate problem surfaced during the Feb. 14 radiation accident:
THE CONTAINMENT SYSTEM LEAKED.Such a radiation accident at the site “wasn’t supposed to happen for 10,000 years,” said Geoffrey Fettus, a senior attorney at environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council and a former New Mexico state assistant attorney general who worked on issues related to the plant.
THEY SIMPLY REFUSE TO STATE THE FACTS!
NO GEOLOGIC FORMATION OF ADEQUATE SIZE FOR PERMANENT STORAGE OF NUCLEAR WASTE HAS EVER BEEN DISCOVERED! NO SITE CAN REMAIN STABLE FOR 10,000 YEARS AND THEY KNOW THIS!!!
[SOURCE: Vandenbosch, Robert, and Susanne E. Vandenbosch. 2007. Nuclear waste stalemate. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 10.]
<<Hannes Alfvén, Nobel laureate in physics, described the as yet unresolved dilemma of permanent radioactive waste disposal: "'No geologic formation of adequate size for a permanent radioactive waste repository has yet been discovered that has been stable for so long a period.
Because some radioactive species have half-lives longer than one million years, even very low container leakage and radionuclide migration rates must be taken into account.
A 1983 review of the Swedish radioactive waste disposal program by the National Academy of Sciences found that country’s estimate of about one million years being necessary for waste isolation “fully justified. >>
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act did not require anything approaching this standard for permanent deep-geologic disposal of high-level radioactive waste in the United States. U.S. Department of Energy guidelines for selecting locations for permanent deep-geologic high-level radioactive waste repositories required containment of waste within waste packages for only 300 years!
An Albuquerque Journal review of the Department of Energy records shows that, before WIPP opened, the agency put the risk of such an accident at one chance in 10,000 to one in 1 million during any given year of WIPP operations. WIPP, which was supposed to safely protect waste for 10,000 years, has been open just 15 years.
Regardless of how it happened, the detection of leaking radiation in the deep underground salt mine, and the uncertainty over how far and wide within the mine it spread, changes all that, Neill said. “You could have crapped up a whole lot of real estate down there,” Neill said.
<<If the probes, sent down Friday (March 7,2014), show a habitable environment, people will go down, according to Farok Sharif, president and project manager of Nuclear Waste Partnership, the contractor that runs WIPP for the federal government. If it’s unsafe, a Sandia National Laboratories robot will go in, Sharif said at a public meeting Friday (March7, 2014) in Carlsbad.
Department of Energy officials did not respond to repeated requests from the Journal for information about what contingency plans existed prior to the Valentine’s Day leak for cleaning up such a mess. >>
JUST LESS THAN 2 WEEKS BEFORE THIS, WIPP HAD ANOTHER ACCIDENT!
WIPP entered emergency status less than two weeks ago, when an underground fire was reported. A vehicle used to transport salt in the north area of the underground caught fire. Several employees were taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation. WIPP's underground operations have been suspended since the incident and there has been no indication whether the leak is a result of the previous emergency.
IF YOU LIVE NEAR THE CARLSBAD, NEW MEXICO FACILITY, PLEASE BE AWARE THAT RADIATION WAS RELEASED FOR AT LEAST 20 DAYS, INCLUDING 5 TYPES OF PLUTONIUM.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL IS REPORTING TODAY THAT INITIAL REPORTS WERE NOT ACCURATE.
DEMAND THAT THESE FINDINGS REACH ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THIS AREA. TAKE PRECAUTIONS, NO ONE YET KNOWS WHAT ALL THIS FACILITY IS RELEASING INTO YOUR ENVIRONMENT, NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO KNOW WHAT IS BEING STORED IN ALL THOSE 55-GALLON NUCLEAR WASTE DRUMS, BUT YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW!
HEADLINES FROM LOCAL/STATE NEWS SOURCES READ:
WIPP release story doesn’t add up… accident is unbelievable” — New tests show “high level” release underground — “That facility contains things far more radioactive than High Level Waste” — “I want to hear what really happened down there”
Independent earth scientists believe that WIPP will contaminate the nearby Pecos River, used for irrigation and drinking water in the arid lands of west Texas and Mexico, down gradient from the repository.
IT WAS KNOWN THAT WATER SEEPAGE AND DRUM CORROSION WERE ISSUES OVER 30 YEARS AGO!
The DOE first encountered water seepage into WIPP excavations in 1983. In 1986, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel on WIPP warned that in a few hundred years sufficient brine might seep into the repository rooms to saturate them. The water leakage issue became public in the fall of 1987 when a group of New Mexico scientists (called the Scientists Review Panel) concluded that the salt formation at WIPP contains much more water than the DOE had anticipated. They warned that over a period of time the brine could corrode the waste drums, forming a "radioactive waste slurry" consisting of a mixture of brine and nuclear waste which might eventually reach the surface.
There is currently a concentrated leakage occurring into the WIPP Construction and Salt Handling Shaft. from the top of Dewey Lake redbeds at 20 to 70 ft. in depth, thence into the repository, believed to arise from runoff at the parking lot. In European potash mining experience, such incipient karstic shaft. leakage has been found to be irreparable.
The first drop of water signals the eventual flooding of the mine.
<<Cracks have appeared in the ceilings and floors of several large waste storage rooms, and in three areas, the ceiling has also collapsed. The cracking and collapse are the result of a rate of room closure two to three times faster than was anticipated. When the first storage rooms were excavated in 1983, the DOE expected it would take 25 years for the creeping salt walls to completely close in on each other, locking the barrels of waste into a mass of solid salt rock. However, at the rate the rooms are closing, it may take them only 13 years or less before complete closure. This rapid rate of closure resulted in the initial cracking, which, although known about by the DOE since 1987, was not publicly revealed until the cracks were also discovered by the New Mexico state Environmental Evaluation Group in May 1989 -- a month after the DOE closed the rooms to workers because of fears that sections of the ceiling might fail and collapse.>>
The WIPP facility is EXEMPT FROM ALL LAWS. EPA, NRC, environmental protection, everything!
<<Nuclear waste from defense activities was exempted from most provisions of the Act, which required that if military waste were put into a civilian repository, the government would pay its pro rata share of the cost of development, construction and operation of the repository. The Act authorized impact assistance payments to states or Indian tribes to offset any costs resulting from location of a waste facility within their borders,>>
[SOURCE: Comprehensive nuclear waste plan enacted. Congressional Quarterly Almanac 1982. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 304-310.]
There are actually ten reasons why WIPP was a bad idea to store nuclear wastes, and just ONE of these reasons should have been enough to keep any radioactive waste out of it. But the 'experts' went ahead anyway, just like the nuclear industry went ahead and used the Ge Mark I reactor design despite knowing it was so defective that nuclear engineers quit rather than continue working on it.
1- Oil and natural gas reserves make the site unsafe.
Dozens of oil and gas wells are within two miles of the WIPP site boundary.
When drilling for the proven reserves of oil and gas hits the waste rooms, massive amounts of radioactivity will come to the surface. For example, drilling with air compressors can release enough radioactivity to violate the health and safety standards in 10 seconds.
2- Pressurized brine reservoirs can bring wastes to the surface.
A few hundred feet below the waste rooms are large amounts of salt water under high pressure. When penetrated by drill holes, thousands of barrels can flow to the surface, or through waste rooms bringing wastes to the surface.
3- Anhydrite interbeds fracturing endangers workers.
Just above the ceiling and below the floor of the waste rooms are anhydrite (shale-like) layers that can fracture. Fractures have caused ceilings to collapse and floors to buckle, endangering workers
4` Fluid injection for oil and gas production can release wastes.Companies inject fluids to increase oil production. Fluids have moved for miles through the interbeds, and scientific studies show that large amounts of waste could be transported offsite, even if the injection occurs outside the site boundary.
5-The Rustler aquifer can transport wastes to drinking water.
The Rustler aquifer, which lies between the surface and underground waste rooms, has fractures and caverns which can transport waste, resulting in contaminated drinking water.
6-The waste drums will corrode, releasing gas.
The waste is in 55-gallon drums, which will rust, releasing gas. The gas can transport waste through interbeds and up shafts or drill holes to the aquifer or surface.
7- No one knows what's in the waste drums.
The drums were used as trash cans for plutonium-contaminated wastes. No records were kept of the specific radioactive and hazardous chemical wastes put into the drums. Explosive and flammable materials can release large amounts or radioactivity.
8- WIPP doesn't meet health and safety standards.
Because of the flaws with the site, WIPP does not meet the standards. It has not received federal or state permits.
9- Wastes are safer where they are stored AWAY FROM WIPP..
DOE's own environmental studies show that for at least 100 years, it is safer to leave wastes at the existing storage sites than to use WIPP.
10- WIPP IS LESS THAN 2 PERCENT "DISPOSAL SOLUTION".
WIPP is designed to handle less than two percent of the existing volume of the nuclear wastes created by atomic bomb production. All of the storage sites that would send wastes to WIPP have larger volumes of wastes that would not go to WIPP and for which there is no disposal site. By radioactivity, WIPP would handle about one-tenth of a percent of DOE's existing wastes.
THERE IS NOW HOPE THAT THE EXEMPTIONS ENJOYED BY WIPP CAN BE RESCINDED.
<< In part, the appellate court ruled that in determining that spent fuel can safely be stored on site at nuclear plants for 60 years after the expiration of a plant's license, "the [NRC] failed to properly examine future dangers and key consequences."
If the exemptions were lifted, clear cleanup standards could be set for dealing with the DOE waste, and ongoing legal and regulatory disputes over commercial nuclear facilities might be avoided, he said. Such regulatory changes would have to be "harmonized" with NRC licensing jurisdiction, he said. "[S]ubstantially improved clarity in the regulatory structure and a meaningful state oversight role would allow, for the first time in this country, consent-based and transparent decisions to take place on the matter of developing storage sites and geologic repositories," The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) attorney Geoffrey Fettus said in hearings. >>SOURCE: http://insideepa.com/Superfund-Report/Superfund-Report-02/18/2013/environmentalists-eye-lifting-nuclear-exemptions-from-waste-water-laws/menu-id-1094.html
Since 1983, the DOE has been working with linguists, archeologists/anthropologists, materials scientists, science fiction writers, and futurists to come up with a warning system for future generations living near waste sites and other failities.
For the case of the WIPP, the markers, called "passive institutional controls", will include an outer perimeter of 32, 25-foot (7.6 m)-tall granite pillars built in a four-mile (6 km) square. These pillars will surround an earthen wall, 33 feet (10 m) tall and 100 feet (30 m) wide. Enclosed within this wall will be another 16 granite pillars. At the center, directly above the waste site, will sit a roofless, 15-foot (4.6 m) granite room providing more information.
The team intends to etch warnings and informational messages into the granite slabs and pillars.
This information will be recorded in the six official languages of the United Nations (English, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese, Arabic) as well as the Native American Navajo language native to the region, with additional space for translation into future languages.
A star chart will be included to calculate the year the site was sealed. One of these rooms will be located in the center of the site. There will be another buried inside the berm. The entrance to it will only be a 2 foot hole so as to prevent the theft of the tablets. The third room will be off site. Scientists expect it will take years to build and test the markers.
DOE CHEATED THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO OUT OF FINANCIAL ASSURANCE THAT IT COULD PROPERLY CLOSE THE WIPP FACILITY (AT A COST OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, POSSIBLY) AND CHEATED THE RESIDENTS OUT OF AWARENESS OF WHAT THE WIPP FACILITY COULD COST THEM...THEIR HEALTH!
<<Once the waste was being sent to WIPP, there were various lawsuits brought by both the DOE and environmental groups against NMED. Lawsuits were also brought against the DOE regarding the safety of their transportation, irregularities in the NEPA process, and raising environmental justice issues.
The DOE argued that they should not have to provide financial assurance for WIPP because the federal government could be counted on to have enough money to close WIPP properly at the end of its operational life. The DOE then withheld millions of dollars promised for road improvement money for the WIPP route in New Mexico because they claimed they couldn't afford both the road improvements and financial assurance. Later that year, Senator Domenici changed one of the budget bills to exempt WIPP from having to provide financial assurance. Afterwards the DOE released the money for the roads.>>
THE WIPP SITE IS SUPPOSED TO BE SEALED IN 2032, THE "LOWEST-RANKING" NUCLEAR WASTE AT WILL REMAIN DANGEROUS UNTIL THE YEAR 12,006...10,000 YEARS FROM NOW, BUT THE HALF-LIFE OF THE PLUTONIUM 239 IS 24,000 YEARS [But even a tiny amount of Plutonium, inhaled and lodged in your lungs, can kill you slowly], AND MANY BARRELS OF KNOWN WASTE PRODUCTS IN STORAGE AT THAT SITE IS
Plutonium: one millionth of a gram, officially CALLED “safe,” can be lethal <<In this press release and thousands like it, the government lies with an apparently reasonable tone, good enough to persuade The New York Times and others. But it’s a big lie, because governments know that no radiation exposure is good for anyone, that any exposure is a risk.
The honest discussion would be over how much radiation a person can tolerate and remain healthy for a reasonable time. There are many correct answers to that depending on the particular conditions of exposure. It is dishonest to conflate “naturally occurring and other sources of radiation” because “other sources” are mostly from nuclear medicine, power plants, and warheads – all sources created by deliberate human choice.
The deeper lie is in the suggestion that, since a
person gets 620 millirem a year, what harm can come from a little bit
(or a lot) more? The answer is that great harm can come from very
limited exposure. The official
“acceptable” body dose of Plutonium is less than one millionth of a
gram, and even this amount can eventually be lethal, because Plutonium
that gets into the human body doesn’t all come out. It tends to
concentrate in the blood, muscle and bone. Americium behaves similarly
in the human body.
Another official lie embedded in government language is the suggestion that 620 millirem is somehow “safe.” It’s not. It’s already too great an exposure, and the effects of radiation are cumulative.>>
Another official lie embedded in government language is the suggestion that 620 millirem is somehow “safe.” It’s not. It’s already too great an exposure, and the effects of radiation are cumulative.>>
Energy Department said no one was contaminated. That was false. Actually the detected level of Plutonium was MILLIONS of times higher than officials first acknowledged.
On February 26, in a letter to residents of the Carlsbad area, DOE field manager Jose Franco made what appears to be the first official admission that workers at the waste pilot plant had suffered internal radioactive contamination. Franco wrote that “13 Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) employees that were on site the evening of February 14 were notified that they have tested positive for radiological contamination.” Previously the agency had said there were 139 employees on site at the time of the release, and no external radiation was detected on any of them.
On February 27, New Mexico’s two U.S. senators wrote directly to EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, asking for the EPA’s independent assessment of the “event,” as well as deployment of EPA assets to New Mexico to assess the situation independently. Senators Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall, both Democrats, noted that since “the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the primary regulatory authority in regard to any releases of radioactive materials to the environment from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant,” the EPA should do more than merely monitor the Energy Department and other agencies involved.
The EPA stonewalled. In effect, the Democratic
administration in Washington had this answer for the two Democratic
senators: Drop dead.
The EPA said it at greater length, but not until March 5, and then in a letter from the regional administrator, not the administrator in Washington. “We are still evaluating the situation,” wrote Ron Curry, without ever saying why the primary regulatory authority was refusing to “conduct independent studies.”
The EPA said it at greater length, but not until March 5, and then in a letter from the regional administrator, not the administrator in Washington. “We are still evaluating the situation,” wrote Ron Curry, without ever saying why the primary regulatory authority was refusing to “conduct independent studies.”
Senators Heinrich and Udall have written to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, asking why his agency has failed to carry out its responsibility under federal mine safety law, which requires the Mine Safety and Health Administration “to inspect WIPP no less than four times a year.” Records show that WIPP was inspected twice – instead of 12 times – in the past three years.
THE FACILITY IS SUPPOSED TO BE SAFE THERE FOR 10,000 YEARS.
OBVIOUSLY, IT IS NOT SAFE.
AND WHAT HAPPENS AFTER 10 THOUSAND YEARS?
DOESN'T ANYBODY IN GOVERNMENT CARE?
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