Friends,
Note
the following intended use of the explicitly fraudulent BEIR VII report:
But Diane D’Arrigo,
a low-level radiation specialist with the Nuclear Information and Referral
Service in Washington,
said that when tritium enters the human body, “if it were to displace a
hydrogen atom in our DNA we would have potential genetic damage.”
Because tritium is almost
always found as a water contaminant, it goes directly into soft tissues and
organs, according to the EPA.
Tritium “is very
much something that can be taken up by the body,” D’Arrigo said.
“It gives off beta emissions, so wherever it lodges it will give off
radioactivity in that region.”
A National Academy
of Sciences panel in June said that even very low doses of radiation pose a
cancer risk over a person’s lifetime. “It is unlikely that there is
a threshold [of radiation exposure] below which cancers are not induced,”
the scientists stated.
Of course, the electric ratepayers are stuck with the $ millions for such
ludicrous “decisions,” continuing to profit the “rad
protectionists” while continuing to destroy the economics of all things
nuclear.
Now, maybe we can get $ billions to prevent cosmic radiation from
constantly manufacturing tritium in the atmosphere? Can we sequester tritium
to reduce the world equilibrium tritium inventory of 50 million curies? (How
about reducing the legacy of the 2,000 million curies in the early ‘60s
from above-ground weapons tests – now about 700 million curies? :-)
But we explicitly suppress the data that shows that biology ceases to
function without radiation (including biology studies from removing K-40 from
natural potassium in the Oak Ridge
calutrons).
All relevant data is discarded by the BEIR VII Committee.
(Note also that these foundations are above a “tritium plume”
in ground water from 1960’s leakage from the below-ground spent fuel pool.)
Regards, Jim Muckerheide
===================
More radioactive Yankee Rowe waste to pass through
Vermont
By
Kathryn Casa | Vermont
Guardian
posted August 19, 2005
BRATTLEBORO
— As much as 23 million pounds of tritium-laced construction waste could
be trucked through southern Vermont within a stone’s throw of two
elementary schools after Massachusetts regulators turned thumbs down on a
request to leave the low-level radioactive material on site.
Officials
of the shuttered Yankee Rowe nuclear power plant near Rowe, MA, had asked the
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) for a
“beneficial use determination” (BUD) permit, which proposed leaving
in place building foundations and other underground structures of the reactor
containment building, one of the few structures left standing at the site.
They
also asked for permission to fill holes left by demolished foundations and
other excavations with about 20 tons of concrete rubble from demolition of
other structures at the site.
Yankee
Rowe, the nation’s third-oldest nuclear power plant, began
decommissioning in 1993. Late last year, officials there estimated there were
about 1,000 shipments left before decommissioning was complete.
But
in a July 29 decision, MassDEP said the proposal could complicate cleanup of
soil and groundwater contamination. “MassDEP has concluded that the BUD
approval to abandon-in-place subsurface structures and reuse concrete rubble as
fill shall be limited to only those materials with no distinguishable
plant-related radioactivity above background level,” said MassDEP
Commissioner Robert W. Golledge, Jr.
“While
the risk posed to the public by Yankee’s proposal may be low,
tritium-contaminated rubble is low-level radioactive waste which cannot be left
on site. Further interring the material on site may exacerbate or complicate
the clean up of existing soil and groundwater contamination at the site,”
he determined.
Tritium,
a known carcinogen, is released in steam from commercial nuclear reactors and
may leak into the underlying soil and ground water, according to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. It has a half-life of about 12 years.
The
EPA considers tritium one of the least dangerous radionuclides because it emits
very weak radiation as it decays, and leaves the body relatively quickly.
But
Diane D’Arrigo, a low-level radiation specialist with the Nuclear
Information and Referral Service in Washington,
said that when tritium enters the human body, “if it were to displace a
hydrogen atom in our DNA we would have potential genetic damage.”
Because
tritium is almost always found as a water contaminant, it goes directly into
soft tissues and organs, according to the EPA.
Tritium
“is very much something that can be taken up by the body,”
D’Arrigo said. “It gives off beta emissions, so wherever it lodges
it will give off radioactivity in that region.”
A
National Academy of Sciences panel in June said that even very low doses of
radiation pose a cancer risk over a person’s lifetime. “It is
unlikely that there is a threshold [of radiation exposure] below which cancers
are not induced,” the scientists stated.
Yankee
Rowe spokeswoman Kelley Smith said that plant officials and Massachusetts state officials are in
negotiations about how much of the 23.7 million pounds of concrete in the
reactor support structure will have to be shipped out. That determination will
be made after officials measure tritium background levels, she said.
MassDEP
spokeswoman Elizabeth Stinehart said the process used to determine background
levels is “still under development.”
Kelley
said that if left in place, the tritium would result in exposure levels that
exceed only those set by MassDEP, but would be within the limits set by both
the Massachusetts Department of Health and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
According
to NRC criteria, Kelley said, decommissioning plants must demonstrate that a
hypothetical resident living on a reclaimed site would not be exposed to more
than 25 millirems of radiation in addition to the 360 millirems that resident
would receive during the course of a normal year. She said the increased dosage
must take into account all possible pathways, including drinking water from a
well drilled on the property, or drinking milk from a cow raised on the land.
Because
Massachusetts restricts the transport of radioactive waste through various
towns and on certain roadways, the concrete will be shipped north on Route 100
through Readsboro and Whitingham, VT, then east on Route 9, a windy highway
that crosses Hogback Mountain and comes within yards of Marlboro Elementary
School and the Academy School in West Brattleboro.
The
trucks will connect to Interstate 91 at exit 2, where they will head south,
eventually ending up at a rail line in Worcester, MA, where the waste is loaded
onto railcars and transported to a nuclear waste facility in Utah, Smith said.
Yankee
Rowe notifies the Vermont Department of Health in advance about the shipments,
which in turn notifies Vermont State Police headquarters in Waterbury. But local emergency response
officials have told the Vermont Guardian that they are not notified of the
shipments.
State
records showed that 250 shipments had passed through southern Vermont as of November 2004, the last time
the Vermont Guardian requested the information. Current statistics were
unavailable this week because the Vermont Department of Health Protection was
moving.
Past
shipments have contained low levels of the radioactive isotopes cobalt 60;
nichol 63; iron 55; cesium 137; cesium 134; americium 241; CM-243; plutonium
238, 239, 241, 245; and depleted uranium said Carla White, Vermont’s
senior radiological health specialist.
During
the busiest demolition periods, about one truck per week has passed through
southern Vermont,
state records showed.
Marlboro
School Board Chairwoman Lauren Poster said the elementary school has long been
concerned with traffic on Route 9, which includes a passing lane in front of
the school, where the speed limit is 50 miles per hour. She said traffic
accidents and jack-knifed trucks are routine on the roadway during the winter
months.