Thursday, February 27, 2014

I'm still able to post


People are losing access to their blogs after posting about the radiation event near Carlsbad New Mexico.

The latest news on the event:

Breaking: 13 WIPP employees exposed to radiation 02/26/2014 04:26:01 PM MST http://www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-news/ci_25232120/breaking-13-wipp-employees-exposed-radiation

CARLSBAD -- Thirteen employees of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant were exposed to radiation, according to test results taken the day a radiation leak was detected at the nuclear waste repository. [end]

SEE also Enenews here. 

I advise careful monitoring of this situation.


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Another Plutonium 'Leak' Detected in Carlsbad New Mexico



Another 'leak' reported by The Wall Street Journal:

‘Airborne Radiation Found After Leak at Nuclear Site’ (Feb 25, 2014) WSJ, p. A2
“More airborne radiation has been detected in southeastern New Mexico from a leak at the nation’s first underground nuclear waste dump…Last week, DOE officials confirmed the first-ever leak at the facility. It stores plutonium-contaminated waste from Los Alamos and other government nuclear sites” [end]

Majia here: Several people have noted at my blog and at Enenews that the NOAA's hysplit system indicates that emissions from the first New Mexico plutonium release went north-east.

The first plume went north-east while the monitoring stations are south and west. Here is the link for the NOAA's hypslit if you want to find out where yesterday's plume was headed.

Mamabear against Nukes commented on the sampling results. One wonders what the levels would have been if samples were taken directly from the plume:

MamaBears AgainstNukesFebruary 25, 2014 at 3:19 PM

DOE info on "dose" = 3 Mrem Feb 15. Went way down after that. Only three hours of this would exceed EPA limit of 10 Mrem for airborne particulate. Most airflow went north and east. The sampling stations are south and west. (Annual NESHAP limit of 10 mrem/yr (0.1 mSv/yr). See: http://www.wipp.energy.gov/Special/WIPP%20Environmental%20Sampling%20Results.pdf

Majia here: I keep thinking to myself, please don't let this be another big nuclear event.

The US government has already demonstrated their crisis management style. It will be the same in style and substance as the Japanese crisis management approach. All dangers will be hidden and denied, even when residents are at direct risk for exposure.

Read what my friend Stock has to say about the actual risks from the New Mexico release here and here.

Meanwhile in Japan, TEPCO reports that the cooling fan on unit 4 spent fuel pool has stopped. Read about the story at Enenews.

Source: Fukushima No.4 reactor pool's cooling fan halts, http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140225_19.html

I'll post screen shots and analysis at the end of the week, but so far my conclusion is that significant emission events - evidenced by high pixilation and pink atmospherics - are increasing in frequency, but are still intermittent.

TEPCO cam now looks very smoggy and pink