Radiation Exposure

January 15, 2025 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Fukushima: Spreading Radioactive Wastewater, Sludge, Soil

By John LaForge

Melted fuel still vexing test extraction methods

Thirteen years on from the catastrophic triple explosions and reactor meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi in northeast Japan, emergency responders are still trying to observe and examine the melted fuel under the reactors (sometimes called “corium”). Contractors from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) have repeatedly failed in attempts to robotically collect a mere three grams (0.1 ounce) of the corium from reactor 2, a project that started three years ago.

The company Amentum, working for Mitzubishi Heavy Industries, has built robotic machinery to try to retrieve a smidgen of corium. Its goal is to find out the state of the meltdown because, as National Public Radio reported, “the exact nature of the debris is currently unknown.”

Amentum is trying to build an extraction tool that can function in a radiation zone so fierce that it wrecks most machinery. A 2015 attempt to look inside reactor 1 with a device built by Hitachi-GE Nuclear failed after three hours. Amentum’s first attempt in reactor 2 was stalled August 22 after the long pipe insertion system was found to have been mis-assembled. Then Sept. 18, video feed problems halted the second try. The Associated Press reported that the probe is “maneuvered remotely by operators at another building because of the fatally high radiation emitted by the melted debris.”

Teams of workers have to do 15-minute rotating shifts — to limit their exposure to the wreckage’s radioactivity level — preparing the probe for another attempt. Industry slang for team members is “sponge.” Recovering a mere three grams is scheduled to take two weeks, because the slow-moving robotic plucker tends to get stuck in the tangled debris and takes a tortured path past meltdown-produced obstacles.

The mission of the tiny retrieval is to determine whether it’s possible to eventually retrieve and containerize all 880 metric tonnes — 300 tonnes per reactor — of the fatally radioactive wreckage, to keep it out of the environment for eons. Some critics have said decommissioning the whole site could take 100 years.

The idea of covering the site’s six-reactor radioactive blight with a roof — like the shed that was installed over the Chernobyl reactor site — is unpopular because of the risk of another major earthquake and tsunami.

Meltdown-spewed plutonium on the wind

Nuclear reactors at Fukushima (and everywhere), smash apart uranium atoms creating a lot of heat — to boil water. This atom smashing inside reactors produces radioactive poisons like cesium, iodine, strontium, and dozens of other elements — including plutonium. In addition to this reactor-borne plutonium at Fukushima, about 6% of the fuel in reactor No. 3 was made from plutonium itself.

Some of this plutonium from inside the three destroyed reactors was released to the environment by the meltdowns and explosions of March 2011. On Nov. 15, 2020, the journal Science of the Total Environment published the report, “Particulate plutonium released from the Fukushima-Daiichi meltdowns,” noting that plutonium-239 was dispersed widely by the disaster.

Plutonium, the most toxic substance known to science, was spread “up to 230 km away” (142 miles) from the reactor site, the researchers found.

Long-distance dispersion of plutonium was partly the result of micro-particles being blown by the wind. Five isotopes of plutonium were released including Pu-238, -239, -240, -241, and -242. Some plutonium persists environmentally and contaminates the food chain for 240,000 years.

In 2023, the journal Chemosphere reported on a study’s findings of large amounts of highly radioactive cesium-rich micro-particles (CsMPs) in an abandoned school building close to the Fukushima -Daiichi site.

Plumes of the micro-particles penetrated the building during the meltdowns of March 2011. Phys.org online reports that the contamination poses “a threat to human health if inhaled. The study shows that indoor CsMPs should be considered in safety assessments and in building clean-up efforts.”

Long-term effects of dumping unknown, scientist warns

Japan hosted the 10th Pacific Island Leaders Meeting in Tokyo last July, which was attended by most leaders of the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum.

A hot topic was Japan’s dumping of tens of thousands of tons of contaminated Fukushima wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. The dumping was protested by Pacific rim countries and many, including China and Russia, have banned imports of seafood products from the region’s waters. Some 60,000 tonnes of the wastewater had been discharged by August 2024.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida assured the island leaders’ gathering that the discharge of the wastewater was being done “in compliance with international safety standards and practices.” Yet the controversial dumping continues to be criticized by scientists.

At the meeting, director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the Univ. of Hawaii, professor Robert Richmond, complained that questions remain regarding the effectiveness of the water filtration system, known as ALPS, and about the radioactive contents of the thousand-plus storage tanks of wastewater.

In October 2018, Tepco admitted that the ALPS had failed to remove dangerous elements and made a public apology. For years, Tepco and most media have insisted that the ALPS treatment removes everything but tritium, including strontium and 61 other radioactive elements, from the contaminated water. Tepco has promised to re-filter the wastewater, noting that 84% of the 890,000 tonnes then held in tanks (today there are 1.3 million tonnes) still had high concentrations of iodine-129, ruthenium-106, technetium-99, and carbon-14. Levels of strontium-90 (a severe human health hazard) were detected in some tanks at 20,000 times the drinking water limit.

“The long-term effects of this discharge on Pacific marine ecosystems and those who depend on them are still unknown. Even small doses of radiation can cause cancer or genetic damage,” Prof. Richmond said in a statement to BenarNews online after the gathering.

Richmond called Japan’s current radiation monitoring system inadequate and poorly designed, and said it’s failing to protect ocean and human health.

“The discharge, planned to continue for decades, is irreversible. Radionuclides bio-accumulate in marine organisms and can be passed up the food web, affecting marine life and humans who consume affected seafood,” Richmond said.

The professor also raised concerns about other severe hazards already harming the Pacific Ocean and marine life, such as pollution, overfishing, and climate change. He urged Japan to reconsider its approach. Enclosing the contaminated water in cement structures like sea walls is one alternative.

You can hear Prof. Richmond explain the risks of tritium contamination in an National Public Radio interview, here: https://www.npr.org/2023/07/09/1186674909/what-to-know-about-japans-plan-to-dump-waste-water-into-the-ocean

Water treatment leaves highly radioactive sludge in search of containment

Tons of highly radioactive chemicals collected in the ALPS filters as sludge are transferred to heavy plastic casks called “high integrity containers” or HICs, and moved to temporary storage. The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, published a report on the wastewater dumping August 24, 2024 that clearly outlines some problems with the sludge. The end of the article reads as follows:

In addition to the release of treated water, there are many other issues to be tackled. The amount of highly radioactive sludge, or “slurry,” produced in the process of treating contaminated water continues to increase, but no effective treatment method has been decided upon.

The increasing amount of slurry is stored in tanks, but since there is still a risk of leakage when it is in liquid form, plans call for it to be dehydrated to reduce its volume and then process the substance into solid form.

In 2021, Tepco filed an application to build a device for this purpose. But the Nuclear Regulation Authority pointed out the risk of radiation exposure to workers, and Tepco was told to review the design.

As a result, the start of the dehydration process has been delayed from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026.

Furthermore, no concrete method has been decided on for solidifying the dehydrated slurry.

Tepco is aiming to determine the solidification method by the end of fiscal 2025 and start solidification around fiscal 2035.

Advocates demand stricter limits on radioactive poisons

The Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network (FFAN) in Tokyo is an alliance of parents, concerned citizens, and affiliated organizations. The group writes:

“The U.S. FDA has set a potentially hazardous level of ‘allowable’ radiation in food: 1,200 Becquerel per-kilogram (Bq/kg) of cesium-134 and cesium-137.”

“Becquerels-per-kilogram” is a reference to concentrations of radioactive cesium that has been found to contaminate food, soil, and water since the March 2011 disaster. Cesium-134 and -137 was spread in large quantities from the three burning reactor meltdowns and it Cs-137 persists in the environment for 300 years.

Alarmingly, the limit of 1,200 Bq/kg in food is merely a recommendation. It is both a non-binding and unenforceable. Such a high contamination threshold exposes a significant portion of the U.S. population, particularly children and women, to considerable health risks.

Standards limiting radiation in food in Japan are 12 times more protective for adults and 24 times more protective for children than U.S. standards. Food too radioactive to be sold to Japanese consumers is allowed to be sold to U.S. consumers and served to U.S. service members and their families on military bases overseas.

FFAN is urging the FDA to lower its permitted cesium limit to five Bq/kg for all food, nutritional supplements and pharmaceuticals, and that the U.S. quickly institutes widespread, transparent testing to ensure this limit, particularly in the wake of Japan’s catastrophic and ongoing radiation releases from Fukushima-Daiichi’s triple reactor meltdowns. This aligns with a similar call by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Germany, which promotes a European Union-wide standard of four to eight Bq/kg. To sign FFAN’s petition see:https://nislappdc.org/fukushima-fallout/

Kimberly Roberson, Project Director for the FFAN, commented on this scandal for Food Safety News, Sept. 4, 2024. Roberson wrote, “At 1,200 Becquerels per kilogram, FDA has among the highest [allowances] in the world.”

“To confront and mitigate the growing public health threat of radioactive contamination in food, Congress should pass the Federal Food Administration Act, establish the FFA to focus like a laser beam on food safety, and empanel independent scientists and experts who understand radiation’s environmental and health effects to advise it,” FFAN said.

The IAEA: International Allowances for Environmental Assaults?

The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, which ignored its own guidelines in approving the dumping of Fukushima wastewater into the Pacific, has granted approval to Japan’s plan to use some of the 14 million tonnes of cesium-contaminated soil and debris collected after the Fukushima meltdowns in construction work.

The Japanese government intends to get rid of roughly 75 percent of the radioactive soil — if it’s contaminated at or below 8,000 Bq/Kg — by using it in road embankments, railways, agricultural land, and land reclamation.

“We are extremely concerned. The IAEA has consistently stated in the past that radioactive waste should be stored centrally and we have supported that position,” said Hajime Matsukubo, the secretary general of the Nuclear Information Centre in Tokyo. He said the limit for soil contamination was previously set at just 100 Bq/kg, and has now been lifted to 8,000 Bq/kg. “But now they are going against their own recommendations,” he told the South China Morning Post. “My fear is that once they relax this rule, they can then go on and ease all sorts of other rules,” Matsukubu said.

January 10, 2025 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

The Lies Have It: Xcel Energy Wins Operating Extension for Nation’s 5th Oldest Nuclear Reactor

The unit recently leaked nearly 1 million gallons of radioactive cooling water from its underground pipes, some of which reached the Mississippi River, drinking water source for Minneapolis, St. Paul and as many as 20 million people downstream.

John LaForge, 10 January 2025

I.F. Stone famously said, “All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.” The aphorism applies well to nuclear reactor operators, including Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has granted Xcel a second license extension for operating its 54-year-old Monticello reactor on the Mississippi River in Minnesota. The decision will permit this GE jalopy, a Fukushima clone, to run until it’s 80 years old — a dangerous feat never been done in the history of nuclear power. The NRC received over 3,000 public comments mostly critical of the extension, but the the commission has rubber stamped 87 of 92 [1] similar requests, so call the NRC Never Really Concerned.

The NRC nod is based partly on the commission’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) [2] for the re-licensing, even though the document confirms that Xcel repeatedly made false statements about its massive 2022-‘23 leak of radioactive cooling water. According to a March 16, 2023 Associated Press (AP) story, [3] Xcel’s first public response to the major leak was, “There’s no danger to the public.” Xcel then proceeded to understate by more than half the leak’s actual volume, only estimating it was 400,000 gallons.

Xcel eventually acknowledged that volume of the leak, from an old corroded underground pipe, was 829,000 gallons, and that the groundwater plume of reactor cooling water — some of which would later reach the Mississippi River — had a radioactive footprint of some fourteen curies of tritium [4] — a very large amount. (For a reference, the 1979 partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island released an estimated 15 curies of gaseous radioactive iodine-131 to the Pennsylvania atmosphere. Other radioactive materials went into the Susquehanna River.)

Xcel’s 829,000-gallon leak was always a direct threat to drinking water because — as the company’s own 2023 Annual Radioactive Effluent Release Report states on page 13 [4] — “It is assumed groundwater continuously flows to the river…” The Mississippi is the drinking water source for 20 million people, including Minneapolis, St. Paul and their surrounding suburbs 37 miles downstream from the leaky reactor.

The fact that Xcel’s radioactive groundwater plume would automatically move toward the Mississippi meant the leak posed a gargantuan PR problem. Lying about it was Xcel’s and the NRC’s first action. One NRC spokesperson, Victoria Mitlyng, told WCCO TV News, March 17, 2023, [5]“There is no pathway for the tritium to get into drinking water.”

This mis-step was so blatant that NRC Senior Environmental Project Manager Stephen S. Koenick publicly apologized [6] for the fudge, at an NRC open meeting in the city of Monticello, May 15, 2024. Koenick told the gathering, “I know we had meetings in which we reported there were no indication[s] of tritium leak making it to the Mississippi. However, in our Draft Environmental Impact Statement, we do say, we do conclude there were some very low concentrations of tritium in the Mississippi River.”

Curies and picocuries: code language helps to confuse

When these radioactive accidents take place, PR language is employed by the industry to confuse, befog, and try to trivialize their size, scope, and potential health and environmental effects. Xcel reported to the NRC Dec. 15, 2022 that its leaked cooling water contained 5,020,000 “picocuries of radioactive tritium per liter,” sometimes written as “picocuries/liter.” This concentration is 251 times the EPA’s allowable limit for drinking water.

A picocurie is one-trillionth of a curie. Anything in the world divisible by one trillion is naturally very large, and a curie is a very large cache of radioactivity indeed. One curie amounts to 37 billion atomic disintegrations per-second.

The NRC’s final EIS states on page 3-48 [8] says, “Monticello reported an abnormal discharge to the Mississippi River from tritium contaminated groundwater of 0.167 curies of tritium between 07/27/23 and 12/31/23….”

The figure “0.167 curies” may give the impression of a small amount, but this amount of tritium contamination already in the Mississippi translates to 167 billion picocuries. Again, 20,000 picocuries-per liter is the current EPA allowable drinking water limit.

Over seven million gallons of groundwater has been pumped from Xcel’s onsite wells [7] to try and keep more tritium from reaching the Mississippi. The final EIS says about this pollution at page 3-206 [9] “For the period from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023, a total of 0.388 Ci [curies] of tritium (released via natural evaporation from the temporary tanks and the groundwater remediation pond) was reported during calendar year 2023.” This is to say 388 billion picocuries of tritium were sent floating around Minnesota’s Wright and Sherburne Counties. This under-reported and unplanned, emergency stop-gap response poses some risk for the surrounding residents who breath.

Xcel’s estimated leak of 14 curies of tritium will contaminate the moving groundwater for a very long time. Its radioactive half-life is 12.3 years, so the tritium will persist for about 12 decades while it decays (to helium-3). Once tritium contaminates water, it is impossibly expensive to remove. A new textbook on tritium reports, “its half-life is short enough that it is extremely radioactive. For a given mass, it is, for instance, about 150,000 times as radioactive, in terms of disintegrations per unit time, as plutonium-239. One teaspoon of tritiated water would contaminate about 100 billion gallons of water to the U.S. drinking water limit.”[10]

Alarmingly, when tritium is internalized (ingested or inhaled) it can result in problem pregnancies, miscarriages, and birth abnormalities because this machine-made radioactive poison crosses the placenta where it threatens the fetus. Yet the NRC has neither imposed a penalty nor even issued a rebuke to Xcel for its enormous leak or for its public lying that still paints a false picture of its consequences.

Xcel’s home website seen Jan. 8, 2025 still includes the uncorrected notice of March 16, 2023 that claims, “Xcel Energy took swift action to contain the leak to the plant site, which poses no health and safety risk to the local community or the environment,” and in the next paragraph it still says, “the leaked water is fully contained on-site and has not been detected beyond the facility”. Of course, Xcel knows that nothing “contains” groundwater which is constantly moving willy nilly. This company’s public pronouncements must not be believed.

The Coalition for a Nuclear-Free Mississippi River, made up of regional environmental, climate, and justice groups has vowed to see the reactor closed before the achey, breaky unit causes a more catastrophic radiation release.

Notes

1.“Subsequent License Renewal: Extending Nuclear Power Reactors to 80 Years of Operation”, Power magazine, June 5, 2023, https://www.powermag.com/subsequent-license-renewal-extending-nuclear-power-reactors-to-80-years-of-operation-and-maybe-more/

2. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Subsequent License Renewal, Monticello, Final Environmental Impact Statement, Nov. 15, 2024, p. 3-43, https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2430/ML24309A221.pdf

3.“400,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked from a nuclear plant in Minnesota,” by Steve Karnowski, March 16, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-xcel-energy-nuclear-radioactive-tritium-leak-c7a12ecb1b203179c5f7fef42bd0a3aa

Xcel “2023 Annual Radioactive Effluent Release Report”, https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2413/ML24135A191.pdf

5.“Regulators: Nuclear plant leak didn’t require public notice”, WCCO TV/CBS Minnesota, March 17, 2023

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/regulators-nuclear-plant-leak-didnt-require-public-notice/ “Mitlyng said there is no pathway for the tritium to get into drinking water.”

“NRC apologizes, changes its stance on tritium leak,” Monticello Times, June 6. 2024, p.1,

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3482973154219-nrc-apologizes-changes-stance-on-power-plant-s-tritium-leak

Xcel, “Groundwater recovery enters final phase at Xcel Energy’s Monticello plant”,

Updated estimates show total volume of water higher; Dec. 14, 2023, https://mn.my.xcelenergy.com/s/about/newsroom/press-release/groundwater-recovery-enters-final-phase-at-xcel-energy-s-monticello-plant-MCRTNOMXTBTNFYNLMVJD6GLPQXZQ

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Subsequent License Renewal, Monticello, Final Environmental Impact Statement, Nov. 15, 2024, p. 3-43, https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2430/ML24309A221.pdf
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Subsequent License Renewal, Monticello, Final Environmental Impact Statement, Nov. 15, 2024, p. 3-43, https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2430/ML24309A221.pdf
Arjun Makhijani, PhD, Exploring Tritium Dangers, IEER 2022, p. 5, https://ieer.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Exploring-Tritum-Dangers.pdf

11.Coalition Petition for a nuclear-free Mississippi river, https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/petition-for-a-nuclear-free-mississippi-river

— Originally at Counterpunch. org

November 2, 2024 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Fukushima: Stumbling Through Deconstruction of Reactor Meltdowns

By John LaForge, Z Network. Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.

Melted fuel still vexing test extraction methods

Thirteen years on from the catastrophic triple explosions and reactor meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi in NE Japan, emergency responders are still trying to observe and examine the melted fuel under the reactors (sometimes called “corium”). Contractors from Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) have repeatedly failed in attempts to robotically collect a mere three-grams (one 10th of an ounce) of the corium from reactor 2, a project that started three years ago.

The company Amentum [1] working for Mitzubishi Heavy Industries, has built some robotic machinery to try and retrieve a smidgeon of corium to find out what state the meltdown is in [2] because, as National Public Radio reported, “the exact nature of the debris is currently unknown.” [3]

Amentum is trying to build an extraction tool that can function in a radiation zone so fierce that it wrecks most machinery. A 2015 attempt to look inside Unit 1 with a device built by Hitachi-GE Nuclear failed after three hours.[4] Amentum’s first attempt in reactor 2 was stalled August 22 after the long pipe system was found to have been mis-assembled. Then Sept. 18, video problems halted the second try. The AP reported that the probe is “maneuvered remotely by operators at another building because of the fatally high radiation emitted by the melted debris.” [5]

Still, teams of workers have to do15-minute rotating shifts — to limit their exposure to the wreckage’s radioactivity level — preparing the probe for another attempt. Industry slang for the team members is “sponges.” Recovering a mere 3 grams is scheduled to take two weeks because the slow-moving robotic plucker tends to get stuck in the tangled debris and takes a tortured path past meltdown-produced obstacles.

The mission of the 3-gram retrieval program is to determine whether if it’s possible to eventually retrieve and containerize all 880 metric tonnes — 300 tonnes per reactor — of what the Associated Press called “fatally radioactive” wreckage, to keep it out of the environment for eons. Some critics have said decommissioning the whole site could take 100 years.

The idea of covering the whole radioactive malignancy with a roof — like the shed that was installed over the Chernobyl reactor site — is unpopular because of the area’s continuous earthquake activity and the risk of another major quake and tsunami.

Plutonium on the Wind

Nuclear reactors at Fukushima and everywhere smash apart uranium atoms creating a lot of heat to boil water. This atom smashing inside reactors produces radioactive poisons like cesium, iodine, strontium and dozens of others — including plutonium. In addition to this reactor-borne plutonium at Fukushima, about 6% of the fuel in reactor No. 3 was made of plutonium itself. [6]

Some of this plutonium from inside the three destroyed reactors was released to the environment by the meltdowns and explosions of March 2011. On Nov. 15, 2020, the Journal Science of the Total Environment published the report, “Particulate plutonium released from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns” noting that plutonium-239 was dispersed widely disaster.[7]

Plutonium, the most toxic substance known to science, was dispersed “up to 230 km away” (142 miles) from the reactor site, the researchers found.

Long-distance dispersion of plutonium was the result of micro-particles being blown by the wind. Five isotopes of plutonium were released including Pu-238, -239, -240, -241, and -242. Some plutonium persists environmentally and contaminates the food chain for 240,000 years.

In 2023, the journal Chemosphere reported a study’s findings of large amounts of highly radioactive cesium-rich micro-particles (CsMPs) in an abandoned school building close to the Fukushima Daiichi site. [8]

Plumes of the microparticles penetrated the building during the meltdowns of March 2011. Phys.org reports that the contamination poses “a threat to human health if inhaled. The study shows that indoor CsMPs should be considered in safety assessments and in building clean-up efforts.”

Long-term Effects of Dumping Unknown, Scientist Warns

Japan hosted the 10th Pacific Island Leaders Meeting in Tokyo last July, which was attended by most leaders of the18-member Pacific Islands Forum.

A hot topic was Japan’s dumping of tens of thousands of tons of contaminated Fukushima wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. The dumping was protested by Pacific rim countries and many, including China and Russia have banned imports of seafood products from the region’s waters. Some 60,000 tons of the wastewater has been discharged by August 2024.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida assured the island leaders gathering that the discharge of the wastewater was being done “in compliance with international safety standards and practices.” [9] Yet the controversial dumping continues to be criticized by scientists.

In Tokyo, director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the University of Hawaii, Research Professor Robert Richmond, complained that questions remain regarding the effectiveness of the water filtration system, known as ALPS, and about the radioactive contents of the thousands of storage tanks of wastewater.

In October 2018, Tepco admitted that its wastewater filter system, had failed to remove dangerous elements and the company publicly apologized. [10] Tepco promising to re-filter the wastewater, noting that 84% of the 890,000 tonnes then held in tanks (today there are 1.3 million tonnes) still contained high concentrations of iodine-129, ruthenium-106, technetium-99, and cabon-14. Levels of strontium-90, a severe human health hazard, were detected in some tanks at 20,000 times the legal limit. Tepco for years has insisted, and most media still report, that its ALPS treatment process removes everything but tritium, including strontium and 61 other radioactive elements, from the contaminated water.

Richmond called Japan’s current radiation monitoring system as inadequate and poorly designed, and said it’s failing to protect ocean and human health.

“The discharge, planned to continue for decades, is irreversible. Radionuclides bioaccumulate in marine organisms and can be passed up the food web, affecting marine life and humans who consume affected seafood,” Richmond said.

The professor also raised concerns about additional hazards already harming the Pacific Ocean and marine life, such as pollution, overfishing, and climate change. He urged Japan to reconsider its approach. Building the contaminated water into cement structures like sea walls is one alternative.

You can hear Prof. Richardson explain the risks of tritium contamination in an NPR interview, here.

Water Treatment Leaves Highly Radioactive Sludge in Search of Containment

Tons of highly radioactive chemicals collected in the ALPS filters are collected as sludge and transferred to heavy plastic casks called “high integrity containers” or HICs, that moved to temporary storage.

The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun, published a report on the wastewater August 24, 2024 that clearly outlines some problems with the sludge. [11] The end of article reads as follows:

In addition to the release of treated water, there are many other issues to be tackled.

The amount of highly radioactive sludge, or “slurry,” produced in the process of treating contaminated water continues to increase, but no effective treatment method has been decided upon.

In 2021, TEPCO filed an application to build a device for this purpose. But the Nuclear Regulation Authority pointed out the risk of radiation exposure to workers, and TEPCO was told to review the design.

As a result, the start of the dehydration process has been delayed from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026.

Furthermore, no concrete method has been decided on for solidifying the dehydrated slurry.

TEPCO is aiming to determine the solidification method by the end of fiscal 2025 and start solidification around fiscal 2035.

Advocates Demand Stricter Limits on Nuclear Poisons

The Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network in Japan is an alliance of parents, concerned citizens, and affiliated organizations. The group writes:

“The U.S. FDA has set a potentially hazardous level of ‘allowable’ radiation in food: 1,200 Becquerel (Bq) per kilogram (kg) of cesium-134 and cesium-137.” “Becquerels-per-kilogram” is a reference to the amount of highly radioactive cesium-137, which spewed in large quantities by the three burning reactor meltdowns and which persists in the environment for 300 years.

Alarmingly, this is merely a recommendation and holds no legal weight. Such a high threshold exposes a significant portion of the U.S. population, particularly children and women, to considerable health risks.

FFAN is urging the United States to lower its allowable cesium limit to five Bq/kg for food, nutritional supplements and pharmaceuticals, and that the government quickly institute widespread, transparent testing to ensure the limit. The demand aligns with a similar call by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Germany, which promotes a European Union-wide standard of four to eight (4-to-8) Bq/kg. To sign FFAN’s petition see here.

Kimberly Roberson, Project Director for the Fukushima Fallout Awareness Network, commented on this scandal for Food Safety News, Sept. 4, 2024. [12]

Roberson wrote, “At 1,200 Becquerels per kilogram, FDA has among the highest DILs in the world.

“Standards limiting radiation in food in Japan are 12 times more protective for adults and 24 times more protective for children than U.S. standards. Food too radioactive to be sold to Japanese consumers is allowed to be sold to U.S. consumers and served to U.S. service members and their families on military bases overseas. FDA [limits] for radioactivity in food are non-binding and unenforceable.

The IAEA: International Allowances for Environmental Assaults?

The International Atomic Energy Agency, which ignored its own guidelines in approving the dumping of Fukushima wastewater into the Pacific, has granted approval to Japan’s plan to use some of the 14 million tons of cesium-contaminated soil and debris collected after the Fukushima meltdowns in construction work. [13]

The government intends to get rid of roughly 75 percent of the radioactive soil — if it’s contaminated at or below 8,000 becquerels per kilogram — by using it in road embankments, railways, agricultural land, and land reclamation.

“We are extremely concerned. The IAEA has consistently stated in the past that radioactive waste should be stored centrally and we have supported that position,” said Hajime Matsukubo, the secretary general of the Nuclear Information Centre in Tokyo. He said the limit for soil contamination was previously set at just 100 becquerels per kilogram, and has now been lifted to 8,000 Bq/Kg. “But now they are going against their own recommendations,” he said, reported the South China Morning Post. “My fear is that once they relax this rule, they can then go on and ease all sorts of other rules,” he said. ###

— Originally at Znetwork.com. John LaForge, is Co-director of Nukewatch, and is co-editor with Arianne Peterson of Nuclear Heartland, Revised: A Guide to the 450 Land-Based Missiles of the United States.

Endnotes:

[1] Fukushima-MHI, September 29, 2024

[2] The Register online, September 11, 2024

[3] NPR, March 16, 2011, “Plutonium In Fuel Rods: Cause For Concern?” March 16, 2011

[4] The Guardian, April 13, 2015

[5] Associated Press, September 15, 2024

[6] NPR, Mar. 16, 2011, “Plutonium in Fuel Rods: Cause For Concern?” March 16, 2011

[7] “Particulate plutonium released from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns,” Science of The Total Environment, Vol. 743, Nov. 15, 2020; and “Particulate plutonium released from the Fukushima Daiichi meltdowns,” July 14, 2020, by University of Helsinki

[8] Physics.org, May 29, 2023

[9] Radio New Zealand, RNZ Pacific, July 19, 2024

[10] “Fukushima nuclear plant owner apologizes for still-radioactive water”, Reuters, October 11, 2018

[11] “60,000 tons of treated water from nuclear site discharged so far,” The Asahi Shimbun, August 24, 2024

[12] Food Safety News, September 4, 2024,

[13] South China Morning Post, September 12, 2024; and The Independent, September12, 2024

August 6, 2024 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Aging Monticello Nuclear Reactor Endangering Human Health

By Joseph J. Mangano

The Monticello nuclear reactor, one of the oldest in the world, has requested permission from federal regulators to extend its license for 20 years. If approved, the reactor in Monticello, Minn. could stay open for up to 80 years after its 1970 launch.

An 80-year-old reactor is an unknown quantity. Only a few, including Monticello, have even passed the 50-year mark. But federal regulators have approved all six requests for U.S. reactors to remain active up to 80 years, and are considering 10 others. Approvals are expected for all, as federal regulators have never rejected an extension.

A nuclear reactor is a complex array of mechanical parts. Over time, these parts become brittle and corrode. Aging at a reactor like Monticello presents multiple threats to safety and health, including:

1. The chance of a catastrophic meltdown increases; with over 3 million persons living within 50 miles of Monticello, many thousands would suffer from radiation poisoning or cancer.

2. The amount of highly radioactive waste that must be stored at each site — forever — in deep pools of water or steel and concrete casks would increase; currently, Monticello waste is nearly equal to the amount released during the Chornobyl meltdown.

3. Routine releases of over 100 radioactive particles and gases, only created when a reactor operates or a nuclear weapon explodes, are likely to increase; these toxic products enter bodies of nearby residents through breathing and the food chain.

These concerns are a reality at Monticello. In November 2022, a leaky pipe released large amounts of water contaminated with radioactive tritium at the site. Xcel Energy, which owns the reactor, failed to report this for four months — until a second large leak occurred — while trying to fix the first leak. The total amount of contaminated water is greater than an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Any entry into local drinking water from these enormous spills is a health risk.

U.S. reactors have operated over six decades, but federal regulators have only conducted one study of cancer in local residents. That report used statistics before 1985, and is thus outdated. No studies are currently planned.

Monticello is in Wright County, close to the border of Sherburne County. Almost all residents of these counties live within 25 miles of the reactor, and are most vulnerable to exposures from environmental releases. These counties are fast-growing areas just outside of the Twin Cities, with a current population of more than 250,000.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, before and just after the Monticello reactor started up, the two-county death rate was 6 to 7% below that of other Minnesota counties — for cancers, and for all causes combined. This pattern is expected in an area with low rates of people who lack health insurance, who are disabled, or who live in poverty.

By the late 1970s, the two-county death rate exceeded the state rate for all causes, and has remained high ever since. If the local rate had remained 6-7% below the state, over 4,000 fewer deaths would have occurred. Cancer death rates are also high; in the two most recent years (2022 and 2023), the local rate was 9% and 20% above the state, respectively.

Many factors can account for an elevated risk of death. But one clue that Monticello releases may have been one factor is cancer mortality among children – who are much more likely to be harmed by a dose of radiation than are adults. Prior to the early 1990s, local child cancer mortality was 37% below the state, but has been 14% above ever since.

The push to keep the Monticello reactor running does little as a solution for future energy needs, as it only accounts for 9% of Minnesota’s electricity. However, safe and renewable sources accounted for 31% of the state’s electricity in 2022, most of it wind power, a number that is rising each year.

Unlike nuclear power, the wind and sun pose no cancer risk, and will last forever. The application to keep Monticello open should be denied, and the reactor should close in 2030, the end of its current license period.

— Joseph J. Mangano, MPH MBA, is an epidemiologist and Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project.

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